The Sappire Eye
by youkai of endless possibility
Summary: Marisa learns about a powerful item capable of controlling youkai. can she find the culprit before she can exact her revenge?
1. the youkai of endless possibility

It was an ordinary day at the Hakurei shrine. The miko of the shrine was out in the yard sweeping. Just then she heard a sound and looked curiously towards the source. The sound had come from the direction of her shrine, but she didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Hey reimu, you shouldn't space out like that" someone called out to her.

"I wasn't spacing out" she called back turning toward her.

It was Marisa Kirisame, the ordinary magician of the forest of magic.

"Well you were just staring at your shrine." Marisa pointed out.

"So what brings you here" Reimu asked casually as she continued to sweep.

"Do I need a reason to just pop in, just felt like seeing how you were" Marisa replied.

"Knowing you, you probably want to borrow something" Reimu commented.

"No, I was just at the scarlet devil mansion, I borrowed some real nice books" she said indicating a sack slung over her shoulder.

"Then perhaps you're here to give a donation" Reimu noted happily.

"Oh, well about that, I kind of didn't bring any yen along," Marisa replied hesitantly.

Before Reimu could respond there was a loud noise and their attention was drawn to the donation box. The lid was off and someone was peeking over the top of it.

"Hey, what do you think your doing" Reimu demanded.

She rose to full height and leapt out of the box. She was around five feet tall. Her brown hair was shoulder length and was kept out of her eyes by a hair band. She wore a simple blue dress with oversized sleeves that covered her hands. She had bat wings and fangs as well as a flower in her hair.

"That was a great nap" she commented.

"You were sleeping in my donation box" Reimu asked.

"Is that what it was, well it was empty" she commented chuckling.

"I don't think Reimu accepts youkai as donations" Marisa commented with a grin.

"Just who are you anyways" Reimu asked.

"That's simple, I'm Eclair presider over the variety of chance" she exclaimed arms held high to emphasis her statement.

Marisa and Reimu both gave her blank stares.

"You just made that up didn't you" Reimu stated flatly.

"I thought everyone knew that the variety of chance means anything can happen" Eclair explained.

"So you control endless possibility, what does that mean" Marisa asked thoughtfully.

"That means I can make anything happen whenever I want, that makes me the scariest youkai ever, doesn't it" Eclair boasted.

"Well it's one thing to boast, but can you back it up" Marisa wondered aloud.

"Well gee, I just woke up, I've got to go find some tasty breakfast before I begin bending reality for kicks" she replied.

She began to fly away, but Marisa intercepted her on her broom.

"I'll see how strong you really are" Marisa said as she began shooting star shaped projectiles at her.

"Oh, if you insist on getting in my way I guess I'll make you my breakfast" she growled as she dodged Marisa's attack.

Reimu sat on the shrines steps to watch the fight unfold. Eclair held up her arms and suddenly a thick fog rolled in. Marisa cautiously looked around as her visibility went down.

"Uh, maybe she wasn't kidding" Marisa remarked.

She heard something and moved out of the way just in time to avoid Eclair who had flown straight at her. Eclair had turned around and was coming in for another pass, her sleeve pulled back and her claws brought to bear.

"Fighting this defensively isn't my style," Marisa said as she dodged the second strike.

She held her hand in the air and a magic circle formed beneath her.

"Love Sign, Non-Directional Laser" she exclaimed.

Four lasers shot outward from her in the four cardinal directions and then began to spin around her. As they began to fade she fired off four more which began to spin in the opposite direction. The powerful lasers burned their way through the fog which was now quickly dissipating.

Eclair had just barely dodged the attack a little singed by the lasers. Eclair held her hand out and shot a burst of crescent shaped projectiles at Marisa causing here to halt her spell as she dodged the attack.

"Your attacks aren't flashy enough" Marisa remarked as she shot more stars.

Eclair had also shot off more of her crescent shaped attack. The two attacks collided in mid air throwing magical sparks into the air.

"I've got to say though, I love your moon shaped attack" Marisa commented.

"You haven't seen anything yet" Eclair replied.

She held her hand up gathering power.

"Fire sign, igneous flare" she exclaimed.

She pointed towards Marisa and a red sphere appeared near her. Marisa backed away as the sphere began to glow and shortly exploded. She began pointing in quick succession making more of them appear, each of them exploding in turn. Marisa was hard pressed to dodge them as she tried shooting more stars at her foe at the same time.

"Well, that's a bit more flashy" she said to nobody in particular.

Just then she was caught in the edge of one of the explosions and knocked from her broom. She began to fall to the ground below. Eclair pointed beneath her causing a sphere to appear and begin to glow. Marisa was however able to call her broom to herself and escape the blast in time. She flew back up into the massive blind spot behind Eclair, and while the youkai was scanning the area for any sign of the witch,She hit her with more star shaped magic. Eclair plummeted for a little while before spreading her wings once more and regaining her altitude.

"Hey, that was mean. I thought you went boom" Eclair told her scowling.

"It'll take more then that to take me out" Marisa replied.

"Well that's fine with me, it would be too boring if you were to die so soon" Eclair said smiling.

She held up her hand once more preparing her spell.

"Chaos sign change the world" she declared.

A strange ripple formed and began to spread outward. Marisa braced herself but it did nothing to her as it passed. Soon the ripple began to distort everything inside it besides Marisa and Eclair. A nearby flock of birds was affected changing them into shadowy creatures with sharp claws, fangs and a wispy ghost like tail. They immediately dove towards Marisa to attack. She fled from them trying to get her bearings, as the sky warping and shifting was very disorienting. She managed to dodge them and fired off stars making them burst into puffs of darkness. These converged and then suddenly became one large one.

"What in the world is going on" Marisa exclaimed only to be hit from behind by some crescent shaped magic making her wince.

"I told you, I can make anything happen" Eclair told her.

"Why you" Marisa exclaimed as she turned to attack her.

Yet as soon as she faced Eclair she was reminded of the creature that had formed from the smaller ones. She moved just in time to evade the attack.

"That's cowardly, you fight with misdirection, don't you" Marisa commented.

"So what if I do" Eclair chuckled.

"It's time I stopped messing around" Marisa said pulling out her Hakkero.

She began to concentrate as she dodged the youkai and her strange creations combined attacks. She muttered something into it and thrust it forward unleashing a massive rainbow laser towards Eclair. She was struck by the attack and plummeted to the ground bellow her spell wearing off. She landed With a crash in front of the Hakurei shrine unconscious. Marisa landed shortly after and looked down at the youkai.

"What do you think we should do about her" Marisa asked Reimu, who was now sipping tea.

"Take her inside, I'll be back soon with something for her to eat" Reimu told her setting down her empty tea cup.

* * *

Eclair slowly woke up, yawned loudly and looked around. She was inside the shrine on a futon with a blanket on her. She sat up and noticed Marisa was on a cushion next to her reading a book.

"Breakfast" she exclaimed leaping to her feet and rushing towards Marisa.

She held her back with one hand placed on her head while Eclair flailed her arms in the air drooling a tad at the thought of fresh meat.

"I'm not your breakfast, that is" Marisa said pointing to the nearby table.

On the table were some fresh cuts of meat that Reimu had bought from the human village. After one glance she was stuffing it all into her mouth, some blood dripping from her mouth as she chewed the raw meat. Finally she swallowed it looking quite content.

"That was rather good" she said wiping the blood from her mouth with her sleeve.

"You always eat like that" Marisa inquired.

"Huh, was there something wrong with how I ate" she asked confused.

"Never mind" Marisa sighed.

"Well see ya, I'm out of here" Eclair said as she began to head towards the exit.

"Wait, don't leave, Reimu told me to keep you here" Marisa told her.

Eclair's response was sticking her tongue out at her. She then walked outside and flew away.

"Gee, I didn't want to have to look after her in the first place, but now what do I tell Reimu" Marisa said aloud.

Just then Suika came in through the open door grinning.

"Reimu, you home, you mind if I come in" she inquired.

"She's not here, she went somewhere and left me to watch over the shrine," Marisa told her.

"Really, that doesn't seem like her," Suika remarked thinking about it.

"To be truthful, I was supposed to be watching a young youkai," Marisa admitted.

"Well it seems you didn't do a very good job, I didn't know you babysat" Suika teased.

"Not really, it was either that or go back to scarlet devil mansion," Marisa replied.

"Then, don't you think we should go find her," Suika inquired.

"Sounds a lot better then waiting around for Reimu" Marisa agreed putting the book down.

Marisa packed up her books and took her broom in hand.

"Before we go let's check the shrines stores for sake," Suika suggested grinning even more.

"Sounds good to me" Marisa said smiling.

A little while latter the two of them set off, Suika now in possession of a bottle of sake. Suika drank from it happily, Marisa having already had a little at the shrine.

"So, where should we look first," Marisa asked.

"Leave that to me," Suika replied handing her the almost empty bottle.

Using her ability to manipulate density, she became as a mist and began to spread across Gensokyo. After a while she reformed in front of Marisa.

"I forgot to ask what she looked like," Suika admitted.

She took back the sake and drank it.

"About this tall," she said holding her hand out above the ground.

"She has wings similar to Remilia's and wears an oversized blue dress with a flower and hair band in her hair," Marisa told her.

"I saw her, she was in the forest of magic," Suika said pointing.

The two of them began heading towards the forest atop Marisa's broom, Suika riding behind the magician. Suika threw her arms in the air, enjoying the ride. Before long they reached the edge of the forest and Marisa landed her broom. They continued, Suika leading the way, on foot.

"So, what's so special about this youkai, from what I saw, she just seems like any young youkai," Suika inquired.

"You should have seen her fight, it was something else," Marisa commented.

Suika considered this for a moment.

"If you're impressed it must be something," Suika replied.

There was some rustling in the bushes and then suddenly someone leapt out at them.

"Gotcha," she called out.

Marisa instinctively fired off some star shaped projectiles at her knocking her down.

"Hey, what was that for," Wriggle asked getting up.

"What are you doing here," Suika inquired.

"I'm playing hide and seek with Rumia, Cirno, Mystia, and someone called Eclair," Wriggle told them.

"Oh, that's convenient , we're looking for Eclair," Marisa told her.

"How come," wriggle inquired?

"She was supposed to be watching her and she ran off," Suika explained.

"I didn't want to tell her that," Marisa told Suika a tad annoyed.

"Whatever it is you can forget it, she obviously doesn't want anything to do with it," Wriggle exclaimed.

"So, you intend to get in my way," Marisa replied.

"It's not as if she's done anything wrong, leave her be," Wriggle replied.

"Hold on, if you fight her, sure you'll win, but the fight may scare away Eclair," Suika whispered to Marisa.

"What else could we do," Marisa asked.

"Leave, that to me," Suika told her.

"What are you two whispering about," Wriggle inquired getting a tad aggravated.

"Fine, we'll leave her be, see ya" Marisa told her.

"huh, really, just like that, guess your to afraid to fight," Wriggle replied before beginning to leave.

"You did that on purpose, didn't you, this better work," Marisa told Suika.

With a huge smile on her face, Suika pulled out a handful of hair. She dropped it to the ground where it transformed into a mini Suika clone.

"Follow that youkai," she ordered.

The clone sped away after its target deeper into the forest. Wriggle wandered through the forest looking for her friends, unaware she was being followed. Before long she noticed a rustle in the branches of a nearby tree. Upon closer examination she discovered it was Mystia.

"Gotcha Mystia," she called out.

"Dang, I'm the first one you found," Mystia sighed.

She flew down from her perch and followed Wriggle as she began to look for others.

"Marisa was looking for Eclair, she was too afraid to fight though," Wriggle boasted.

"Really, that's awesome, I can't wait to tell Cirno, they're finally beginning to take us seriously," Mystia practically sang.

"I think that might be her over there," Wriggle said pointing at a wall of ice that looked out of place in the forest. Sure enough, crouched behind the wall next to a tree was the ice fairy.

"Gotcha Cirno," Wriggle called out.

"Huh, how did you find me, I had the best hiding place ever," Cirno said indicating the wall.

"Marisa is afraid of wriggle, she ran away from her too," Mystia told Cirno.

"I wish I could've been there to see that," Cirno commented.

"Let's go find Rumia and Eclair," Wriggle said.

The other two followed her, Cirno flying a foot above the ground.

"Nobody can hide from me, they're as good as found," Cirno commented.

After wandering about for a little while, Mystia pointed out something excitedly.

"I think Rumia is over there," she told the others pointing.

Sure enough there was Rumia, shrouded by a thin darkness.

"Gotcha Rumia," wriggle declared.

"Who else is left," she asked.

"Well, just Eclair," Mystia responded.

"You, won't believe what happened either, Marisa ran for her life after setting eyes on Wriggle," Cirno said happily pointing at wriggle.

"You don't say," Rumia responded.

"Now all I have to do is find Eclair," Wriggle said aloud.

The four of them began looking for her. They looked in the bushes, trees, and even under rocks.

"Where is she, it's taking forever to find her," Rumia commented.

"She must be a great hide and seeker," Cirno stated.

"Well I'm beginning to run out of ideas," wriggle told the others.

Suddenly something dropped down behind them making a loud noise. This startled them causing all four of them to fall down.

"Gotcha," a smiling Eclair said looking down at them.

"Don't you know how to play the game, you hide and I find you," Wriggle told her.

"Yeah, I know, but I got bored," Eclair replied.

"Where were you hiding anyway," Rumia asked.

"Up there," she said absently pointing at the sky.

"That's no fair, you were supposed to hide in the forest," Cirno told her in a matter of fact way.

"Oh well, my turn to seek," Eclair said covering her eyes and turning towards a tree.

"One tasty human, two tasty humans, three tasty humans," she began.

The others ran off to find hiding places.

"Ninety-nine tasty humans, one hundred tasty humans, let the hunt begin," she said finally finished counting.

By that time Marisa and Suika had arrived.

"Oh, it's you again, what do you want," Eclair asked.

"I'm taking you back to the shrine," Marisa replied.

"I don't have to listen to you," Eclair answered.

"You're coming back with us if you like it or not," Marisa growled.

"I'm not fighting you," Eclair told her flatly.

"What, why is that," Marisa inquired.

"That wouldn't be any fun for me, I want to fight her," she said pointing at Suika.

"If that's what you want, go get her," Marisa commented patting Suika on the back.

"I don't get it, didn't you lose to Marisa, don't you want another chance to fight her," Suika inquired.

"As flashy as her attacks are, they're too boring," Eclair answered.

"Why you," Marisa shouted.

"Calm down Marisa, I'll handle this," Suika told her taking a step towards Eclair.

Marisa got on her broom and floated up a ways. Eclair unfurled her wings and hovered about a foot off the ground. Suika smirked preparing herself for the battle. Eclair started off by firing some crescent shaped Attacks aimed for Suika. Suika leap up in the air and fired a dark green sphere at Eclair, who barely dodged it. When the attack struck the ground it split off into several spheres moving away from the point of impact. One of them managed to hit Eclair distracting her for a second. This was all the time she needed. Suika Quickly closed the gap and threw a punch straight at Eclair. Eclair moved but not enough to evade the Attack, taking the punch to her shoulder.

"I'm going to bruise," she pouted rubbing her arm as she flew farther away.

She began firing off crescent shaped attacks, However instead of being aimed at Suika they formed a ring around her that slowly rotated about her. Then she formed a second one. She thrust her finger forward and crescents began to fly off from the rings in quick succession. After firing off her attack however she Saw What Suika had done. She had leapt up into the air almost as high as Eclair.

She held her hands to The side where several stones had gathered from the forest floor, being pulled in by a magical force. Suika held a massive boulder ready to chuck it at Eclair. As the crescents flew towards her she hurled The rock at the winged Youkai. The stone projectile shattered several crescents as it went, Eclair barely dodging. Her rings of crescents moved with her a lot of them taken out by the boulder. Suika got hit by some of the crescents, however they stopped shooting towards her when Eclair moved.

"Eek, what kind of Youkai are you," Eclair commented.

"I'm no mere Youkai," Suika replied.

"Well I was just warming up anyways" Eclair Declared.

"puppet sign, diabolical doll," she declared as a doll appeared before her.

The doll wore a fancy white dress with lace and had long dark hair. There was a large bow in it's hair as well. It had a simple expression with bored looking half closed eyes, and wielded two knives. The doll leisurely floated towards Suika. As it was doing this Eclair flung more crescent shots at Suika. She focused more on dodging her shots still making sure to keep an eye on the demented doll. Then the doll cackled it's eyes glowing red as it began spitting fire at her. Suika moved out of the way and began hurling red spheres at Eclair. Eclair dodged them so they continued their flight erupting in explosions when they hit some nearby trees.

"Watch it would you, I live near here," Marisa exclaimed.

Suika however just ignored her, more concerned with the doll slashing at her and breathing fire. Also Eclair was jovially flying about taking shots at her. Suika threw one of her chain accessories wrapping the end of it around the doll, then she swung it around hurling it straight at Eclair. The youkai was hit and fell to the ground along with the doll. Eclair got back up and pointed right at Suika. The doll immediately responded flying towards her grinning madly wielding it's knives menacingly. Suika prepared to punch as the doll drew nearer. When the doll was almost to her and Suika began her punch, Eclair snapped her fingers and the doll exploded. When the smoke cleared Suika was still standing although a tad charred by the blast.

"that attack seems familiar," Suika commented.

"Yeah, I met this lady with lots of dolls yesterday, and I thought I should try it too," Eclair answered grinning.

"Well don't think it ends there," she said gesturing forward.

A couple more of them were spawned and they grinned evilly as they moved towards their target. This time Suika retaliated by tossing a pair of exploding red spheres and the dolls were blown to bits. Then she ran up to Eclair again and hit her with some punches before the youkai could back away. Eclair winced as she flew into the air once more holding her chest pouting.

"Chaos sign, change the world," she declared.

The ripple spread outward changing everything it touched besides her and Suika. Marisa moved away not wanting to be inside her spells field of effect. Suika didn't seem to be too bothered by the warping reality around her. Nothing really appeared to have happened. Suika ran right toward Eclair when suddenly she was struck from the right and was knocked to the ground. She glanced to her right and saw that the tree had struck her.

She looked around surprised to see that all of the trees were moving their branches. She quickly moved to avoid another of the trees that was lashing out at her. While this was happening Eclair was positively hysterical, laughing at the oni. Before Eclair knew it she was being punched by Suika. Eclair reeled back, some nearby trees grabbing Suika's arms as the youkai irritably rubbed her lightly bleeding nose.

"You really shouldn't underestimate an oni," Suika told her ripping the branches from the trees.

Eclair backed away from the charging oni making trees lash out at her only to have their branches shattered. The youkai panicked animating stones, having the trees hurls fruit and nuts at the oni, and also having the trees launch their leaves as sharp projectiles to slow Suika down. This however only succeeded in staining her dress and giving her several scratches. Suika readied her next attack fed up with the youkai's shenanigans. A black hole formed besides her and began to pull everything towards it. Eclair fought against the pull wildly flapping her arms in a vein attempt at resisting it.

Soon she was pulled towards Suika, who punched the youkai knocking her to the ground. Eclair's spell faded and Suika ended hers as well. she looked down at the unconscious form of Eclair, who now had a black eye.

"You went a little hard on her," Marisa commented as she approached.

"She doesn't know when to quit," Suika replied lifting her with both arms.

"Yeah I suppose your right," Marisa replied as they began to head back to the shrine.

* * *

Latter that day, Reimu walked up the stairs to her shrine with a book under her arm. When she reached the shrine's yard, she saw Suika running around with Eclair on her shoulders. Eclair was laughing jovially her hands in the air. Marisa was sitting in front of the shrine reading a book. Marisa looked up from her book as Reimu walked over to her.

"Did I miss something" Reimu asked absently scratching her head.

"Well, nothing out of the ordinary anyways," Marisa replied.

"So, what did Patchy say about Eclair," Marisa inquired.

"She seems harmless enough, she couldn't even beat you," Reimu answered.

"Wait, then why did I have to watch her," Marisa inquired standing up.

"I didn't tell you to do that, what would people say if I had a youkai hanging around the shrine." Reimu replied.

"It was implied," Marisa replied.

"Miss Hakurai," someone called out.

Marisa and Reimu both looked to the source to see a girl running up the steps. She had short red hair braided on the sides with blue ribbons. She had amber eyes and was smiling widely. She was wearing a blue dress with white ribbons. She stopped in front of Reimu panting, trying to catch her breathe.

"Is this a friend of yours," Marisa inquired.

"No, I don't know her," Reimu replied.

"Miss Hakurai, please take me on as your apprentice," she exclaimed.

"What," Reimu sputtered.

Marisa chuckled.

"Miss Hakurai, please train me to be a shrine maiden so I can fight youkai," she insisted.

Marisa began to laugh even more.

"Now just hold on, what do I need an apprentice for anyways," Reimu commented.

"That's a good one," Marisa was saying, "She's too lazy to train herself."

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Marin Masami," she said ignoring Marisa and bowing to Reimu.

After thinking a bit Reimu told her "If you really want to be my apprentice you need to train yourself first,"

"Oh, well I've been training at the dojo to get ready for this. Will that do," she inquired.

"Uh," Reimu paused trying to think of how to get out of this.

Suddenly Reimu smiled and said" Okay, I guess it wouldn't be so bad, but as my pupil, you'll have to do whatever I say,"

"Sure, anything," she replied happily.

"Well the floors need washing," Reimu told her.

She happily ran inside the shrine and immediately set off to work.

"Why did you agree exactly," Marisa wondered.

"What, are you saying I can't have an apprentice," Reimu replied.

"Oh, I get it, you want her to do your choirs for you," Marisa commented.


	2. an incident in gensokyo

Reimu was surrounded by youkai in the middle of a dark forest. Their eyes glowed evilly as they closed in on her.

"Piece of cake," she commented producing a handful of amulets in one hand and a needle between each of the fingers of her other hand.

In a quick motion she threw both striking the youkai with the needles and the amulets. The paper amulets exploding on contact with the enemies. The youkai however continued their advance so she continued to throw needles and amulets at them. One of the youkai managed to graze by her attacks so she jumped up kicking the foe in the face knocking the youkai back into another. She was about to activate a spell when someone called out her name. she looked around and saw Marin, her apprentice, grinning at her now dressed in a similar outfit. Reimu was struck from behind and knocked to the ground.

"Masami," Reimu exclaimed as the youkai pounced.

Reimu woke with a start with Marin staring down at her with a smile.

"It's too early," Reimu told her grumpily.

"Oh, but I thought after breakfast, we could get back to training." she replied.

Marin had been living at the shrine for the past month, training whenever she could, and doing whatever Reimu asked of her. In that time she had managed to began to develop some abilities.

"Well you don't have to wake me so early, I was having a good dream until you interrupted," she grumbled.

"My bad, well breakfast is ready, I'll wait for you at the table," Marin replied.

Reimu yawned,stretched and slowly got up. Just then there was a crash. Reimu quickly went to investigate. In the dining room Marin was holding her gohei defensively and staring down a youkai. It was Yamame the spider youkai. She was grinning sinisterly and her eyes were glowing red.

"What are you doing here," Reimu asked reaching for her charms, only to realize she was still wearing her nightgown.

"Don't worry, I'll deal with this one," Marin said swinging with her gohei.

The spider youkai dodged this and backhanded the amateur shrine maiden into the wall. Reimu got ready to fight picking up the gohei Marin dropped. Yamame growled softly and then they lunged at each other. Yamame threw a couple of punches which the shrine maiden evaded before retaliating with the gohei. She hit causing the youkai to stagger back, however she soon regained her footing and began to fire danmaku in a spiral pattern. Reimu grazed her way though the attack almost getting hit once and managed to kick Yamamae right in the stomach. She flew back into the wall snarling.

"What's wrong with you, you don't even have anything witty to say." Reimu commented.

Yamame roared and thrust her arms forward a dark mist pouring from her.

"Uh oh, not her miasma," Reimu commented covering her face with her sleeve.

The spider youkai suddenly reached forward yanking Reimu's arm away from her face as the poison closed in around her. The shrine maiden began to feel the effects of the poison as it slowly began to paralyze her. Yamame opened her mouth wide ready to feed, when suddenly a glowing blue and white yin-yang orb hit the spider youkai in the face, knocking her out the door. The miasma began to dissipate now that the source was gone.

"Are you okay miss Hakurai," Marin inquired.

"I will be," Reimu said, the effects of the poison slowly wearing off.

She slowly made her way to her room, and when she came back out she was wearing her shrine maiden outfit. She strode right outside to where Yamame was. She was just getting up shaking her head and looking around confused.

"Hey, what's the big idea," Reimu demanded pointing her own gohei at her.

"What are you talking about, "the spider youkai inquired shrugging.

"Don't play dumb, you just attacked me in my shrine," Reimu remarked.

She had a puzzled look on her face.

"I don't remember doing that," Yamame told her.

"You used your miasma on me, Marin must have hit you pretty hard with that yin yang," Reimu commented.

"My miasma you say, if that was true you wouldn't be here," Yamame commented with a grin.

"Your poison must not be as strong as you think," Reimu replied.

"Well I'll just leave then," the spider youkai said as she turned to leave.

"Hmm, something strange is going on," Reimu whispered as she returned to the shrine.

* * *

Meanwhile in the forest of magic, Marisa lay asleep at her desk having fell asleep reading the many books open in front of her. She mumbled incantations and spells in her sleep. Her hakero as well as a couple of glass jars with various contents sat on the desk near her. Her hat had slipped off her head and now covered her face. There was a loud bang and the room shook slightly. Marisa was shocked awake knocking over some of the precarious piles of books around her desk. She took a moment to make sure her hat was secure atop her head and then looked around.

"What was that," she wondered.

Before long it happened again knocking more books to the floor. then it happened one more time Marisa's door thrown inward narrowly missing the magician. Marisa stared at the door a moment before looking back to where it once stood. A figure with glowing red eyes stood in the doorway.

"Alice, what's with the flashy entrance," Marisa inquired.

She gestured with her hand and one of her dolls shot towards Marisa with a sharp implement. She side stepped out of the way and winced when she saw the doll impale a book she had left open.

"It's a bit too cramped to play in here, let's go outside," Marisa told her.

Alice replied with a wicked smile summoning two more dolls.

"Okay time for some real fun then," Marisa said looking to her desk.

She scanned the surface and surrounding area trying to locate her hakero. Before she found it however the two dolls shot past her forcing her to turn her attention to Alice.

"Looks like no sparks this time," Marisa remarked thrusting her palm forward shooting a small laser.

Alice intercepted the attack by summoning another doll to take the hit for her. Right when Marisa was about to launch another attack Alice maneuvered her hands and the dolls that had passed by Marisa wrapped around her. Marisa soon found herself bound by the dolls strings. Alice casually summoned another doll which soon began to flash. Marisa's eyes widened as the doll was hurled straight at her. Bound as she was she could barely move.

As it drew closer she dropped to the ground the doll sailing above her exploding with a bright flash. Another was formed soon after and was hurled at her new location. Marisa closed her eyes not knowing what else to do. The resulting blast hurt a lot, causing Marisa to scream in pain. Her clothes were charred and tattered, but at least the strings had burned away. She leapt up shooting stars despite the pain she was in. she managed to get a couple good hits on Alice who replied by summoning more dolls.

"Oh no you don't," Marisa exclaimed.

She kicked up the hakero off of the floor caught it and fired off her master spark sending Alice flying outside, nearly collapsing afterward.

Alice looked around a little confused.

"What happened to you," she asked Marisa.

"You did," Marisa said smiling.

Alice just stared at her as Marisa went back inside her house. The books were strewn around more haphazardly then normal, several of them charred and burnt, a small fire smoldering in the corner. Marisa walked over to it and snuffed it out. Before long Marisa came back out of her house with a fresh set of clothes on and holding her broom.

"Something strange is happening, so I'm going to investigate," Marisa told Alice with a smile.

Alice waved expecting her to leave without her.

"I want you to come with," Marisa told her.

"But didn't you just say I attacked you," Alice asked.

"Yeah, this way I'll know if it happens again," Marisa replied.

Alice sighed shaking her head as she got on the broom behind Marisa. Then the two of them took to the sky.

* * *

Reimu is flying towards the scarlet devil mansion with her apprentice riding piggyback, because she has yet to learn how to fly for herself.

"Man this is embarrassing, I hope nobody sees this," Reimu muttered.

Marin on the other hand was having a great time. Before long they arrived at the island occupied by the scarlet devil mansion. Reimu set down in front of the imposing building. Marin hopped down and the two of them began to head towards the mansion. Meiling was standing by the door and stopped them as they approached.

"So the shrine maiden returns, I don't think the mistress appreciates seeing guests at these hours," Meiling told Reimu.

"I'm not here to see that bat, we're here to talk to patchouli about an incident," Reimu replied.

"Oh, okay. It is odd though to see two red white mikos though," Meiling commented.

She opened the door for them and the two of them walked inside. The interior of the mansion was quite dark, even though it was daytime.

"Why's it so dark in here," Marin inquired as they started down one of the hallways.

"The scarlet devil doesn't like bright lights," Reimu told her.

"That scary vampire lives here," Marin commented looking around a tad worried.

Reimu laughed at this response.

"You won't be a very good shrine maiden if your afraid of youkai," Reimu commented.

"Sorry miss Hakurai," Marin said blushing a tad in embarrassment.

Before long they reached the library. They made their way quickly through the labyrinth of bookshelves.

"There are some rats in my library, looks like the cat isn't doing her job," Patchouli said as she came out from behind a bookcase.

"Ah, just the person I wanted to see," Reimu said smiling.

* * *

Marisa landed her broom in front of Byakuren's temple. Nazrin was standing outside the temple, and she waved at Marisa when she landed.

"Hey Marisa, how are you," Nazrin asked as Marisa and Alice approached the temple.

"Oh hi Naz, we're here to see Byakuren, it's kind of urgent," Marisa told her.

"Oh, well if that's the case, come this way quick," Nazrin said turning and running inside, the mouse in the basket on her tail nearly falling out.

"I didn't know you knew Byakuren," Alice commented.

"I'm the one that broke the seal on her in Makai," Marisa boasted.

"Oh, I see," Alice said as they entered the temple.

Nazrin was standing impatiently at the end of a corridor.

"I thought you said it was urgent," Nazrin shouted making several people turn towards her.

A figure crept up behind Marisa and Alice grinning. She was about to make a loud noise when Marisa held a hand up and said "hey there Kogasa,"

The umbrella youkai pouted.

"How did you know I was here," she asked.

"I could hear you coming a mile away," Marisa said smiling, finally walking down the corridor towards the impatiently waiting Nazrin.

By the time they reach Nazrin however Shou is there asking her why she's making such a commotion.

"It's Marisa, she claimed she urgently needed to see Byakuren, but she's just taking her time," Nazrin pouted.

"Ah, Marisa," Shou said just noticing her.

"Something fishy is going on, so I figured I'd talk to Byakuren about it, this is an urgent matter, but that's no reason to rush," Marisa commented.

"I'll take her to Byakuren, besides you still have some choirs to do," Shou told Nazrin.

"Yes Shou," Nazrin said before leaving.

Shou led then farther down the corridor and stopped at a door. She knocked on it and the door opened, Murasa poking her head out.

"Is Byakuren in," Shou asked her.

"Yeah, we were just talking," Murasa said opening the door the rest of the way.

"Ah, Marisa, so nice to see you, did you need something," Byakuren asked casually.

"Something strange is going on," Marisa told her.

"Really, what would that be," Byakuren asked.

"Well my friend here attacked me out of the blue, she wasn't acting like herself, and then she couldn't even remember that she had done it," Marisa said gesturing to Alice.

"Did her eyes glow red," Byakuren asked sounding serious.

"Well," Marisa said considering," yeah, I think they were."

"That's what I was worried about," Byakuren sighed.

"What's wrong Byakuren," Murasa asked.

"Back before I was sealed in Makai, there was this group of humans that disliked youkai. They saw them as a plague to be exterminated, however one day a select few of them succeeded in creating a terrible magical item," she told them.

"What did it do," Marisa asked.

"With it they could control youkai and do with them whatever they wanted, those humans did terrible things and I knew I had to stop them," she replied.

She paused and sighed.

"After a long and hard battle where I was forced to battle some of my close friends I managed to get it, the sapphire eye," Byakuren continued.

"I tried my hardest to destroy it to no avail, it turned out the sapphire eye had a regenerative power, so I hid it where I thought nobody would look," she finished.

"Why didn't you tell us about this sooner," Shou asked.

"I thought it would be best if nobody knew about it, that way nobody would know to look for it," she replied.

"So, what are you going to do, now that it's resurfaced," Alice inquired.

"Sadly there is nothing I can do, I am a youkai now, so I would become a pawn to their evil designs, Me and my friends will go to Makai, I'll leave this to you, Marisa," Byakuren told her.

"I'll tell the others and make the necessary preparations," Murasa said running out of the room.

"Alice, you should go with them," Marisa told her.

"What are you saying," Alice replied.

"Well if you stay your sure to get beat a lot," Marisa explained.

"What, who do you think your talking about here," Alice retorted.

"Your power level is way too low, your better off hiding in Makai until this is over," Marisa continued.

Byakuren smiled warmly at this.

"Fine, but you'd better not lose, you idiot," Alice said walking over to Byakuren.

"So, when do we leave for Makai," Alice asked her.

"Not long," she replied.

After the preparations were made, Byakuren and her friends, along with Alice began to fly towards the entrance to Makai. Marisa saw them off, waving as they disappeared from sight.

* * *

The two shrine maidens had left having not found anything related to what was going on in patchouli's books. The mansion's maid, Sakuya, had been watching them closely to make sure they didn't disturb the mistress, Remilla Scarlet. Now that they were gone she returned to her routine tasks, making sure the mansion remained clean. Soon she was in the library dusting the shelves, when she had a strange feeling. She leapt to her right barely dodging a large fireball. Of course the books were fine seeing as they were protected from fire and water, however Sakuya wanted to know who would throw a fireball at her in the scarlet mansion.

She turned to see none other then patchouli, eyes glowing red, charging another fireball right before flinging it at the maid. In a moment Sakuya was behind her holding her arms back in a lock.

"What are you doing," Sakuya demanded.

Patchouli remained silent. Before Sakuya knew It, she was hit over the head with a book by Koakuma, whose eyes also glowed scarlet. Patchouli now free of her grasp summoned sharp metal objects above her. Right before they hit, Sakuya vanished reappearing atop one of the bookcases.

"What's going on here, this is serious, I need to inform the mistress about this," she said before vanishing once more.

She slowly approached her mistresses room, carefully opening the door. To her surprise she wasn't inside.  
"Mistress Remilia," she called out.

There was no response. Just then she saw a figure down the hall.

"Hey, what are you doing here," Sakuya called out as she reached for her luna dial.

Before she could activate it however she was tackled to the ground, her time stopping watch falling just out of her reach.

"Remilia, this is no time to play around," she grumbled her fingers inching towards the watch.

In response to this the vampire sitting on her back slashed across her back with her claws causing the maid to cry out in agony.

"Not you too," she managed.

She managed to pull out a single knife and flicked it behind her at Remilia. The vampire leapt up to avoid the attack landing a couple feet behind Sakuya. The maid grabbed the watch and spun around to see her mistress licking the blood from her fingers.

"This must be what those shrine maidens were talking about," Sakuya muttered.

The vampire grinned evilly at Sakuya, her eyes glowing scarlet. Sakuya pulled out more knives and got ready. The vampire lunged at the maid, who vanished before she hit. She reappeared behind her and threw the knives at her, one of them hitting her in the back. Remilia pulled out the knife her wound healing almost immediately. The vampire turned towards her roaring as she threw the knife back at the maid.

She dodged the knife and was about to continue her assault when she saw patchouli and Koakuma coming down the hall. Sakuya hesitated for a moment, just long enough for Remilia to lunge forward pinning her to the wall her claws digging into her shoulder. The vampire snarled in her face the other two crazed youkai closing in as well. As the vampire got ready to slash at her again with her free hand, Sakuya pulled out a knife and threw it downward at her foot, stomping on it after it struck to drive it into the floor. Remilia cried out in pain dropping down to pull the knife out. Sakuya ran past her ready to have to deal with patchouli and her assistant as she fled the mansion to find someone who could help.

Seeing her coming Koakuma began summoning kunai and bubble bullets. Patchouli had activated a spell that combined medium sized bullets with lasers. Sakuya activated her luna dial stopping time. She slowly made her way forward carefully maneuvering around the closely packed danmaku. Once she was through she deactivated her watch and ran down the stairs towards the front room and the main doors. The doors flung open Meiling standing in the doorway, her eyes scarlet.

Meiling sped forward punching the maid in the stomach winding her. Before she could catch her breathe she delivered a sweep kick knocking her to the ground. Then she lifted her foot into the air. Sakuya rolled out of the way, meiling's foot stomping the ground where her head had been seconds before. The maid leapt to her feet furiously throwing knives at the guard who managed to dodge them as she worked her way towards the maid. She could also hear the others getting closer, almost to the stairs now.

Sakuya ducked down below Meiling's punch and shouldered her causing her to stager back into the wall and Sakuya to wince slightly. Then she threw several knives pining Meiling to the wall by her clothes. Then she fled from the mansion.

* * *

The two shrine maidens were walking through the bamboo forest. They were wandering about totally lost.

"Everything looks the same, are you sure we're going the right way," Marin asked looking around.

"Not exactly, but I do know there is a mansion somewhere in this forest," Reimu replied looking about.

"We're lost aren't we," Marin asked.

"Yeah, but my intuition says to go this way," Reimu replied gesturing.

"Are you sure your not just picking a random direction," Marin inquired.

"Hey, don't doubt my abilities," Reimu snapped back.

After wandering around a bit they managed to find the mansion. Reimu shoved open the doors and walked right inside.

"Alright, come on out, I know what you're up to," Reimu shouted.

"Who's making such a ruckus," Erin said entering the room.

"I don't know what you plan to accomplish, but you've been having that rabbit drive the youkai crazy," Reimu shouted accusingly.

Erin began to chuckle, then it began to build until she was laughing out loud.

"You have no idea what you're talking about do you, that doesn't even make sense," Erin told her coldly.

"The youkai's eyes were glowing red just like that lunatic rabbit," Reimu exclaimed.

"Sorry, but it doesn't work that way," Erin sighed.

"I don't trust this youkai, let's make her tell the truth," Marin said raising her gohei.

"Your as misinformed as she is," Erin said pointing at Reimu." I am no youkai."

"Yeah, get ready to battle Marin," Reimu said pulling out her charms.

"Looks like you just cannot be reasoned with," Erin sighed readying her bow.

Reimu rushed forward shooting needles at her. She dodged this and was about to fire an arrow when she noticed Marin unleashing a volley of yin yang orbs. Erin leapt up firing off several arrows at the two shrine maidens. They managed to evade the arrows, one of them shooting through one of Marin's sleeves. Erin held up her hand spawning a dense field of danmaku. Limiting her foes mobility.

Then she fired a volley of bubble bullets at Reimu. She ducked and weaved her way through the bullets firing off some homing amulets afterward. Erin busied herself with shooting down the amulets with her arrows so much she didn't see that Marin threw her gohei at her hitting her in the face, and knocking her down.

"Whoops, it slipped," she admitted.

"Well I'm not giving it back," Erin said angrily throwing it behind her as her danmaku field vanished.

Before they made their next move, Erin spawned a circle of magic circles around them. From these circles several danmaku fired outward, effectively trapping them once more. Then she began to shoot several pellet danmaku into the circle. Reimu fired a volley of bouncing yin yang orbs before concentrating on not getting hit by the flurry of pellet danmaku. Erin managed to dodge the yin yang orbs and continued her assault.

Reimu floated a little into the air spheres of multi colored light circling around her before flying off towards Erin. She turned and ran the spheres striking the ground successively behind her in bright flashes, the last one just barely hitting her. Erin was knocked to the ground, by this time her attack already gone. Despite this however she was still willing to fight, standing once more, readying her bow. Reimu smiled and turned to her apprentice.

"Go get her Marin," Reimu told her.

Her face lit up and she charged firing yin yang orbs ahead of her. The smaller yet faster moving variants that she used shot through the air around Erin making holes in the floors and walls. Erin dodged them sighing at the damage she was causing. Lasers zigzagged their way in front of Erin flaring brightly to life disappearing shortly after. She repeated this while firing waves of oblong danmaku at the charging shrine maiden. Marin continued to charge except when the lasers blocked her path.

Soon she was being driven back by Erin's spell. The lunarian smiled as the novice miko fired wide with her yin yang orbs as she was taxed to dodge the waves of danmaku. Suddenly Reimu teleported above Erin coming down on her with a kick. This sent her staggering backwards, and she fell to a sitting position.

"You done," Reimu asked pointing her gohei at her.

"Yes, but I already told you, we have nothing to do with this," she growled.

Kaguya entered the room smiling.

"What's going on in here, did I miss something fun," she asked.

"Well if your not behind this then who is," Reimu wondered aloud.

* * *

Marisa was in the human village wandering about, trying to find someone acting suspicious. So far it wasn't working out too well.

"If I knew what this sapphire eye thing looked like I would at least be off to a good start," she commented.

Then she saw Sakuya and ran over to her.

"What happened, did you burn the cake," Marisa asked her.

Sakuya just gave her a look and began to walk away.

"Let me guess, Remilia and the others went crazy and attacked you," Marisa said as if it was a fact.

"Wait, how did you know," Sakuya said turning around quickly.

"I'm investigating it right now, though I don't know where to start looking for the culprit," Marisa explained.

"You seem to know a lot, so what are you looking for," Sakuya asked.

"Probably a human that isn't too fond of youkai," Marisa replied.

"The shrine maiden," Sakuya suggested.

"Nah, this doesn't seem like something she'd do, but something tells me her apprentice might be hiding something," Marisa said thoughtfully.


	3. locating the culprit

Cirno was flying though the youkai forest. She was panicked and kept looking behind her as she went. Suddenly Rumia burst from the bushes to her right, her eyes glowing scarlet. The ice fairy managed to dodge this and continued flying.

"What has gotten into them," Cirno wondered aloud.

Before she got much farther Mystia swooped down from above slashing with her claws. This caught her off guard, And though she did avoid it, she ended up crashing to the ground. She got back her hair tangled with leaves and twigs, her dress dirty. Wriggle was just now coming up behind the others all three with scarlet glowing eyes.

"What the heck am I running for, I'm the strongest aren't I, if you keep this up I'll have to beat you up," Cirno declared trying to hide her fear.

The three others grinned evilly. Mystia was the first to charge, preparing to swipe her claws at the fairy. As she did this, Cirno began making a ball of ice above her head that slowly grew larger. She held her hand above her head to support it. As Mystia drew near she hurled the ball of ice at her. Mystia however swooped to the right narrowly dodging the attack and reached out to slash at Cirno.

She only caught her sleeve however tearing it. Even before the assault had ended wriggle had begun making waves of crisscrossing danmaku, aided by Rumia shooting a laser to Cirno's right and left. Slowly the lasers began to converge on Cirno. She laughed as she trust her arms forward freezing the waves of danmaku all the way back to wriggle making her flinch. Then she flew up to avoid the lasers as they overlapped. She flew in place triumphantly arms crossed grinning down at Wriggle and Rumia.

She was struck from behind, falling to the ground with a thud. Cirno got right back up though rubbing her head as she took to the sky again. She flew up in front of Mystia and they stared each other down. Then Cirno rushed forward raising her arms in the air. Mystia flew toward Cirno claws ready. Before the two of them reached each other, Cirno materialized a block of ice in her hands and struck Mystia over the head with it causing her to spiral towards the ground.

The two others had surrounded her and glared at her menacingly. Rumia summoned a cloud of darkness on top of Cirno while wriggle unleashed more danmaku waves. Unable to see Cirno was hit by several danmaku before she was able to escape the darkness.

"You would have to resort to cheep tactics," Cirno growled at them.

Cirno was forced to dodge once again as Mystia shot up into the sky rather close to her. The three of them circled her, Cirno carefully watching. Then all three of them shot waves of crisscrossing danmaku in at her. She smiled as she thrust her hand forward causing all the danmaku around her to freeze. This however was what they expected her to do. Before she had even began freezing the bullets, they had taken new potions.

Rumia once again shrouded her in shadows, this time Mystia flying through the darkness striking at her over and over. Cirno fell to the ground battered and bruised. Her dress was tattered and she had cuts here and there. She struggled to her feet barely able to stand. They began to swoop down towards her, Mystia in front ready to strike again. Before they could reach her however they were scattered by a flurry of amulets and yin yang orbs. Cirno turned to see two shrine maidens walking towards her.

"Hey, I can win my own battles," Cirno shouted at them wiping some blood off her check with her hand.

"Yeah sure, I was just wondering why you aren't affected just like them," Reimu replied.

"Well that's obvious, it's because I'm the strongest," Cirno answered after a pause, eyes closed, proudly pointing at herself.

"You sure don't look it," Marin commented.

"What do you know, you probably wouldn't have lasted five seconds on your own," Cirno replied.

"Well I guess we can't find out, they're gone now," Marin said looking around.

"Where are you two off to anyways," Cirno inquired.

"We have no reason to tell you that." Reimu replied as she began to leave.

"Oh really, well something big is happening, and if I could figure it out before you, you'd be sorry then," Cirno exclaimed as she flew away.

"Youkai sure are strange," Marin commented as they continued up the mountain.

The two of them were walking, Reimu not wanting to give Aya a photo opportunity. Suddenly Hina was floating besides them spinning, a purple mist surrounding her.

"How long were you following us," Reimu asked intently.

"I couldn't help but notice there was a commotion, but it was just some youkai. I thought it was a human in trouble, then you came along," she explained happily.

"Don't you know what's going on, the youkai are going crazy," Reimu told her as they continued walking.

"Really, then even you might be in danger here," Hina said thoughtfully.

"Are you trying to get in my way, again," Reimu asked turning to face her.

"No, that didn't work out too well last time, I'm going to come with you," Hina told her with a smile.

"Well as long as your not getting in my way," Reimu commented continuing onward.

" With her warding off misfortune, we'll get up the mountain no problem," Marin commented.

"She collects misfortune," Reimu sighed.

"Oh," Marin gasped.

She thought about this for a moment.

"What does she do with it all," Marin wondered aloud.

"That's simple, I pass it on to the gods," Hina told her with a smile.

They traveled through forest and alongside a river, and soon came to a waterfall.

"Looks like we have to fly from here on," Marin commented looking up the cascade of water.

"I'll carry you up," Hina offered.

"Wouldn't that be awfully embarrassing," Reimu asked.

"Not at all," she said as she lowered to the ground and allowed Marin to ride piggyback.

The shrine maiden and the curse goddess ascended the waterfall, Marin looking around in awe at the scenery. Before they reached the top however someone flew ahead of them in their way. It was Aya and she was wielding her fan, her eyes scarlet.

* * *

Marisa and Sakuya were in the netherworld flying towards the shrine. Marisa was leading the way on her broom looking rather confident.

"So, why is it that we are here," Sakuya inquired.

"This is the last place I expect her to go, so it has to be the right place," Marisa replied smiling.

"Oh, wait a minute, that doesn't make any sense," Sakuya replied.

"Halt, what is your business here," someone called out as she jumped out in front of them.

It was Youmu, and she had her hand hovering over her swords handle, ready to draw it at a seconds notice.

"Oh, so the half corpse has come to greet us," Sakuya commented.

"I told you we prefer the term phantom," Youmu shouted angrily.

"Calm down Youmu, we just wanted to see if Reimu was here," Marisa informed her.

"The shrine maiden," Youmu said thoughtfully. "no, I haven't seen her."

"Is something happening in Gensokyo," Yuyuko said floating up behind Youmu.

"Please don't sneak up on me like that Mistress Yuyuko," Youmu commented.

"You should go help them Youmu," Yuyuko said pulling out her fan.

"But what about my duties," Youmu replied.

"It'll be fine, just remember to bring back some treats," Yuyuko said playfully.

"I should have guessed it was something like that," Youmu commented.

"I expect something especially delicious," Yuyuko replied.

"next we're going to former hell," Marisa said happily.

"just where I always wanted to go," Sakuya said sarcastically.

"I never would have guessed that," Youmu said taking her statement seriously.

Sakuya sighed and Marisa laughed as Youmu wondered what she missed.

* * *

Having stopped back at her house to change clothes and get cleaned up, Cirno finally found her way through the bamboo forest. She flew triumphantly towards the mansion and threw the doors open.

"I know you're here culprit, you might as well not even try to hide," Cirno exclaimed.

"Looks like we have another misinformed visitor," Erin commented entering the room.

"You can't fool me, this has everything to do with that rabbit with the crazy eyes," Cirno said confidently.

Erin sighed, but before she could continue Kaguya ran through the room being chased by Reisen. The rabbits eyes were scarlet, though for her this was not unusual. Her behavior however made it obvious she wasn't herself. Without a second thought Cirno ran after them back into the bamboo forest, Erin coming as well.

"Hey rabbit, over here, you have no choice but to fight me," Cirno called out as she flew after her.

At first she just ignored her, then she turned and her eyes glowed a little. Suddenly where there had been just one, there stood three Reisens. The three of them began to run towards her. She fired ice at one of them only for it to vanish. She quickly fired at another, but it was another illusion. Then she confidently fired at the last one only for it to disappear as well.

Shortly after she was struck from behind by a punch. She spun around gritting her teeth ready to unleash a large burst of ice. To her surprise however she was now surrounded by Reisens all of which were shooting their danmaku at her. Not knowing which bullets were real or fake she tried to freeze all of them. The real bullets froze, leading back to the real Reisen. Her illusion was temporarily shattered, but she reasserted it.

Cirno charged up a cluster of ice in front of herself and hurled it at her only to find that Reisen had moved. Cirno turned around just in time to see Reisen about to punch and retaliated with a quick burst of ice knocking her back. Quickly Cirno began forming ice in front of her, rolling it along the ground towards Reisen adding to it as she did so. Reisen leapt out of the way of the ball of ice, the attack continuing to roll through the forest. Manny illusion Reisens jumped off from the real one, positioning themselves around her. Then Reisen fired red beams from her eyes hitting Cirno in the shoulder.

She turned to the source of the attack, but as soon as she did she was hit again from behind. She growled gritting her teeth as she tried to find the real one only to be hit again from the side this time. She began randomly attacking the Reisens to no avail, getting hit again and again. Then she was kicked from behind knocking her to the ground. She stood back up covered in burns spitting out dirt.

"That's it, Perfect freeze," She exclaimed.

She trust both hands into the air covering everything around her in ice. Reisen too was frozen falling to the ground with a thump, her illusions vanishing.

"Wow, you managed to win," Erin commented.

She had been watching the whole thing.

"Of course I did, don't you know who I am," Cirno boasted.

"You have to understand, she wasn't the one making the youkai act so strangely, she was affected herself," Erin told the fairy.

"Really, well there was this strange person that showed up right before my friends started acting weird," Cirno commented.

"Then why did you blame us," Erin Exclaimed.

"Because your way more suspicious then some random person I don't even know," Cirno replied.

Erin sighed as she went to go check on Reisen.

* * *

Reimu got her gohei ready as Aya smiled smugly at her. Marin nearly fell off of Hina, grabbing hold of Hina's hair to avoid falling. The curse goddess cried out in pain, Marin hastily releasing her hair. The tengu swung her fan whipping up a harsh gale. Reimu braced herself against it and retaliated with a flurry of amulets. Aya swiftly evaded them sending more fierce wind their way.

"Is there any reason your not helping," Marin asked Hina.

"Well there isn't much I can do while carrying you," the curse goddess replied.

"I can do something, you just need to fly for me," She replied with a smile.

Hina grinned and flew forward towards Aya and Reimu. The shrine maiden and the tengu were engaged in fierce battle. Reimu flew forward to kick her, Aya moving to the side swinging her fan. Reimu swung her gohei up, their weapons meeting. Then they leapt apart Reimu throwing needles. Aya summoned a gust with her fan blowing the projectiles back at the shrine maiden.

She covered her face with her arms, the needles sticking in her sleeves. However before she brought her arms back down Aya kicked her sending her flying back a ways. This is when Hina swooped down in front of Aya, Marin letting loose a volley of yin yang orbs in Aya's direction. She was hit by the first, however she managed to dodge the rest, and flew towards Hina at great speed. She sped past hitting Hina and Marin as she passed Causing Hina to flinch. Before Aya could attack them again, Reimu shot down from above her aiming a kick at her.

Aya moved out of the way, however when Reimu passed her she swung with her gohei, scoring a direct hit. Aya growled throwing a punch at Reimu, who just barely dodged flying backward putting some space between them.

"Get in close again, it's time I showed my skill," Marin boasted with a smile.

Just as Reimu and Aya jumped apart Marin made her move. She held her hand above her head Several spheres of colorful light formed around her, spinning about her. However instead of homing in on her intended target, the spheres scattered flying in random directions. One of them nearly hit Reimu distracting her. Aya took this opportunity to wave her fan in front of her spawning a tornado. The shrine maiden was pulled inside and tossed about by the turbulent wind before being hurled into the cliff near the waterfall.

"Reimu," Marin exclaimed as she began to fall.

Soon however she was flying once more. She now bore a shallow cut above her left eye that was lightly bleeding.

"that had to be a fluke," Marin reasoned readying her spell once more.

The spheres of light appearing again, swirling about her and flying out at random splashing water from the waterfall and showering them with dirt and rocks from the cliff side. Reimu scowled at her before rushing back into battle with Aya.

"If only I had a way to focus the spell, I was never all that good at concentrating," Marin Remarked out loud.

Reimu continued to battle Aya up close swinging her gohei at the winged youkai. Aya dodged each strike skillfully before flying back a bit and rushing forward as a blur. She shouldered past Reimu knocking her back. Aya turned around in the air and rushed toward Reimu hitting her again. She went for a third, however this time Reimu thrust her gohei at her causing Aya to veer away, almost crashing into the waterfall.

"I've got it, this'll work for sure," Marin exclaimed happily.

She held up her hand, however this time instead of forming spheres of light around her, she began to glow with the mystical light. She pulled out her gohei and drew a colorful energy circle in front of her. Then she thrust her hand forward at the center. She unleashed all the spells energy in a single multicolored blast. Aya who was diving towards Reimu broke off her attack, having to graze the attack. The burst of energy blew a hole in the cliff throwing derbies everywhere.

"Did she just spark," Reimu commented caught off guard.

"I just made that up, I could teach it to you," Marin exclaimed ecstatic, waving her hands in the air.

"No thanks, not my style," Reimu replied.

Aya wasn't distracted long by the powerful burst of magic, turning her attention back towards Reimu. She blocked her fan with her gohei and pushed her away by swinging it in an arc.

"Think you can hold her attention for a while, I have a plan," Hina called out to Reimu.

"I'll see what I can do," Reimu replied throwing a handful of amulets at Aya.

"What are you gonna do," Marin asked intently.

"Just hold on tight," the curse goddess replied as she began to spin.

She held on for dear life as she spun slowly round making the shrine maiden dizzy. Aya however had rushed forward towards Reimu, backhanding her gohei from her hand, the weapon soaring down the falls. Suddenly the tengu pushed her slamming her against the rock wall, her hand moving to Reimu's throat. She gagged, trying her best to pry the tengu's fingers away. Then a dark aura began to lift from Aya, her grip loosening, her eyes were back to normal and she was looking around confused.

Her gaze however stopped on the gasping shrine maiden before her. Before she could ask what was happening Hina cried out drawing their attention. Her eyes glowed crimson, however she convulsed as though fighting an unseen enemy. Marin, disoriented from the spinning fell from where she sat, atop Hina's shoulders. She plummeted down the falls a look of terror in her eyes. Without a second thought Reimu dove down after her, desperately speeding down, hoping to catch her in time.

As she drew closer she stretched out her hand towards her apprentice. They locked hands, however shortly after her hand slipped free. Reimu continued to fly down towards her as they drew closer and closer to the sharp rocks below. Reimu sped down a little faster grabbing her around her waist this time, hauling her over her shoulder. They began to fly up shortly before touching the water.

"Thanks," Marin said trying to steady her rapidly beating heart.

"Don't think much of it, I just don't want to go back to doing the choirs," Reimu said looking away even tough Marin cannot see her face.

She giggled leaving it at that as Reimu flew back up to the others. When they got back up to where they were, Hina was okay again. She was hovering besides Aya, a concerned look on her face.

"What did you do just now," Reimu demanded to know.

"I took on her misfortune," she began.

Reimu nodded slowly allowing her to continue.

"They're being controlled, there was this voice, however I managed to overcome it," Hina continued.

"Controlled huh, any chance you know by who," Reimu asked intently.

"No, but whoever it was, they want you dead," Hina commented gravely.

"Really, well they sure are being a coward about it," the shrine maiden remarked.

"Such a person would be no match for miss Hakurai," Marin remarked, still over Reimu's shoulder.

Reimu smiled as she continued up the mountain, Hina following close behind. Soon they reached the top of the mountain, Reimu landing and dropping Marin. The apprentice shrine maiden grunted as she hit the ground.

"We can walk the rest of the way," Reimu said pointing to the Moriya shrine, not too far away.

"Another shrine all the way up here," Marin asked a little surprised.

"Any reason you wanted to come here," Hina inquired.

Before she could answer however, Marisa flew into view in front of them along with Sakuya and Youmu.

"Who knew your plan to find them would work so well," Sakuya commented.

Youmu however was looking around confused.

"Really, all I see is the red white miko," the swords woman remarked.

Reimu chuckled confidently and pointed right at Marisa.

"So, it was you this whole time, you really are your master's apprentice, and to think you had me fooled for so long," Reimu commented.

Marin and Hina looked towards the shrine maiden and then towards the witch on her broom. Marisa grinned and chuckled a little.

"Don't be ridiculous Reimu, even Mima herself is no longer interested in that," The witch commented.

"I always figured you were up to something, now I know what," Reimu replied.

"You don't get it, do you," Marisa sighed.

"Get what," Reimu said starting to get a tad annoyed.

"The one to blame for all of this is standing right besides you," Marisa commented, pointing right at Marin.

"That's absurd, you're obviously lying," Reimu retorted.

"Stubborn as always, seems there's only one way to solve this," Marisa said grinning.


	4. a flare from hell

"Stubborn as always, seems there's only one way to solve this," Marisa said grinning.

Reimu reached for her gohei only to remember Aya knocked it down the waterfall, so she pulled out some amulets instead. Youmu pulled out one of her swords keeping her other hand on the second swords handle. Sakuya held three knifes in each hand. Hina stood ready to fight as well. Then Marin moved in front of Reimu firing a volley of yin yang orbs at Marisa. The witch moved to the right on her broom to evade the attack.

"So, you're going to admit your wrong doing," Marisa commented retaliating with a small laser that the inexperienced shrine maiden barely dodged.

"No, you are," She called back shooting more yin yang orbs.

Reimu sighed turning her attention to the others. Hina had attacked Youmu, sending a stream of her amulets at the half ghost gardener. Youmu cut her way through the amulets, getting closer to the curse goddess. Then she pulled out her second sword and sped past Hina like a blur. A second latter Hina fell to the ground bleeding from a wound on her side. Meanwhile Reimu was confronted by the scarlet devil's Maid, who threw her knives at her. She managed to dodge them returning fire with her amulets, forcing her to dodge as well. Marisa was flying after Marin firing off lasers and stars at her as she ran, occasionally firing back a yin yang orb or two.

"Come on mastermind, show me what you really got, this is getting boring," Marisa taunted.

Marin ducked behind a stone briefly, however when she emerged she was surrounded by colorful energy. She drew a circle with her gohei and thrust her hand towards the center firing of a colorful burst of magic. Marisa however easily dodged this smiling at the novice shrine maiden.

"That was nice, but doesn't compare to this," Marisa commented unleashing her master spark.

Marin was thrown back coming to a stop under a tree. She was just barley conscious, covered in burns from the massive laser. Reimu teleported away from her fight, attempting to strike Marisa with a kick from above. Sakuya however got in her way again through use of the luna dial, and threw several knives in her direction. With little time to change direction, the shrine maiden took a knife in the shoulder, halting her attack. Then Reimu threw needles at Marisa from both hands. Youmu moved between them knocking them out of the sky with her swords.

"It seems I need to get through you two first, you leave me no choice," Reimu commented holding her hand in the air.

She formed two borders around herself. Then she began to unleash a large amount of amulets. These waves of amulets flew outward to the first border, where they then appeared from the second moving back inward until they touched the first border again. After that the amulets flowed from the outside of the second one.

For good measure, she launched a yin yang or two to travel through her borders. Youmu began slashing her way through the formations, as Sakuya hung back throwing knives. Marisa however continued to pursue Marin, who had gotten back up. Reimu kept up her spell despite the knives being thrown her way and Youmu's steady progression towards her as she continued to slash at the amulets.

Reimu ended the spell and flew back just in time to evade a slash from Youmu who had just powered through the remainder of amulets between them. The shrine maiden was not out of danger yet as a flurry of knives flew at her from behind, a couple of them grazing her leaving cuts on her arms. She threw needles and amulets at the two of them scoring some minor hits as she put a little more distance between them. By this time, Youmu's spirit half was in position firing off bubble bullets in an arc towards Reimu. As these drew closer Youmu would speed past them cutting them into a flurry of smaller danmaku that scattered outward. As the bullets drew closer Sakuya appeared behind her along with a slew of knives around her.

She pulled out two amulets throwing them as a large glowing amulet at Youmu as she turned towards Sakuya. She carefully grazed her way past the knives getting cut a little. When she was through she delivered a flying kick to Sakuya, who didn't react in time and was hit in the stomach. Before the shrine maiden could turn around and attack Youmu again she was struck by several small and medium danmaku. The amulet she had hurled at Youmu had been slashed, the tattered paper falling to the ground below. Reimu's attention was pulled away from the half ghost again as Sakuya swung her knife at her, narrowly missing. Reimu retaliated with a punch, however Sakuya blocked this.

Then Reimu launched a skyward kick, knocking the maid back. She turned her attention back to the half ghost, who was still at it cutting her spirit half's bubble bullets. She readied some needles and threw them at her hitting a few times. She threw two more glowing amulets her way, Youmu slashing these as well. This however was just what Reimu wanted. She teleported above her coming down on her with a kick to the back of her head. Her spirit finally stopped spawning bullets as Youmu Moved away from the shrine maiden rubbing her head.

"We're not really here to fight you, just stay out of the way and you won't get hurt," Sakuya told her coldly.

"No wonder I didn't find anything out at the scarlet devil mansion, you were in on it the whole time," Reimu replied.

She held her hand up summoning spheres of light around her. Before she could unleash them however there was a sharp pain in her chest. Her spell faded and she looked down as Youmu pulled her sword out of her. She groaned as she began to fall. Sakuya caught her in her arms.

"You won't get away with this,' she mumbled before passing out.

While this was happening Marisa was following Marin as she ran from her. Marisa was firing off lasers and stars the whole while. Marin tripped on a rock falling on her face, Marisa taking full advantage pulling out her hakero to perform another master spark. Marin gasped as the colorful laser came towards her. When the powerful laser dissipated she was gone.

"Huh, what happened, there should have been something left," Marisa remarked scratching her head.

"Marisa what are you doing," someone called out from her right.

The witch turned to see Sanae pointing her gohei at her, a scared Marin hiding behind her.

"I'm solving an incident," Marisa replied bluntly.

"Since when do you attack defenseless girls," Sanae inquired.

"Hey, I'm not defenseless" Marin grumbled.

"Well the culprit obviously has to be a defenseless human, why else would she be using the youkai to do her bidding," Marisa replied.

"You're not making sense, a defenseless human can't command youkai," Sanae retorted.

"She's lying, miss Hakurai said she's behind this," Marin told Sanae pointing at Marisa.

"You don't need to understand, just stay out of my way," Marisa told her.

"Go in my shrine, you'll be safe there while I take care of her," Sanae told her.

"But what can you do against her," Marin inquired.

"I'm a human god, with the power to cause miracles, I'll be fine," she replied smiling.

Marin nodded and ran to the shrine, which was not too far away.

"Now why don't you go and leave her be, how could she be to blame for an incident," Sanae inquired.

"She wields a terrible power," Marisa explained.

"Wait, didn't you say you were looking for a defenseless human, make up your mind," Sanae sighed.

"No, that's not it, it's a power only a defenseless human would wield," Marisa informed her.

"Your still not making any sense, so why don't I knock a little into you," Sanae threatened.

"Sounds like a plan," Marisa remarked.

Sanae swung her gohei forward sending several charms towards Marisa. the witch dodged firing off a flurry of stars in response. the shrine maiden sidestepped this and flew towards the witch swinging her gohei at her. Marisa backed away a little, pulled her hands back and thrust them forward unleashing a green burst of magic that flew fast at the shrine maiden hitting and knocking her back. Sanae then began to swing her gohei around in front of her drawing stars made of round danmaku. These stars spread around her where they scattered about.

Marisa weaved through the field of danmaku, carefully dodging the bullets. Then she pulled out a glass jar with a cork stuck in it. She lobbed it towards Sanae, purposefully aiming it at one of her danmaku. When it hit the enemy bullet it exploded in a bright blue burst, making Sanae guard her face with her arm. Marisa quickly thrust her arms forward letting loose a laser. Sanae didn't see this coming so she was hit once more.

She scowled retaliating with more waves of charms. Marisa managed to avoid most of them, Getting hit by one or two of them exploding on contact with her. She waved away the wisps of smoke that rose and fired of a barrage of stars and then a couple of lasers as well. Sanae skillfully dodged these. She then held her gohei up causing two magical circles to appear, one to her left and the other to her right. These began to spawn lasers spaced evenly towards Marisa.

Then she began to fire a stream of danmaku aimed specifically for Marisa. the witch focused her attention on dodging the aimed shots getting grazed and burned by the lasers. Then she flew forward at high speed, her broom glowing with energy, trailing stars in her wake. The shrine maiden managed to move out of the way throwing her hand in the air. White energy formed to her left and right moving past Marisa, resembling the bends and twists of a river. Marisa avoided it however she now flew between them. Then Sanae began to throw strings of knives at her flying about between the fluctuating white energy.

Marisa dodged these as well, shooting back lasers and stars, managing to hit Sanae in the shoulder with one of the lasers. Sanae too scored a few hits with her knives, hitting the magician in the left leg and her right arm. Sanae held up her gohei and spawned three stars in front of her launching them at the magician. The witch flew upward and to the left on her broom, preparing herself to strike back. Before she could however Sanae was attacking anew. The image of Kanako appeared briefly behind her, then she launched several faith pillars at Marisa arranged in a circle. Marisa took one of them to the chest, knocking her off her broom and to the ground below. She groaned as she got back up, her broom falling close by. She pulled out her hakero and pointed it at Sanae grinning.

She called out in a loud voice," Final spark."

A large burst of magic poured forth from the hakero and flew towards Sanae. The shrine maiden could barely stay out of the attacks range as it expanded, getting hit by the last bit of it. Sanae was thrown back skidding across the ground before coming to a stop. She staggered to her feet ready to battle more with the magician standing across from her. Just then there was a loud bang that caught their attention. The two of them looked around for the source of the noise, when Sanae pointed and gasped. From the top of the youkai mountain almost all of Gensokyo was visible. The human village was ablaze and fiery explosions blossomed from it.

"There's something happening at the human village" Sanae commented concerned.

"I have to go do something, but we can pick up where we left off anytime" Marisa commented.

"That won't be necessary," Sanae replied.

Youmu and Sakuya were approaching now, Sakuya carrying the unconscious Reimu in her arms, Youmu Carrying Hina.

"We're going to the human village," Marisa announced as she reclaimed her broom.

"I'll take care of Reimu and Hina, you go on ahead," Sanae told them.

they nodded and placed the wounded down and flew away along with Marisa, who lead the way.

"Why are we leaving all of a sudden," Youmu inquired.

"I have a feeling we'll find the real culprit in the village," Marisa explained.

Around the village the sky was filled with smoke. Large curtains of fire were spread across it. Some of the buildings were smashed, debris scattered everywhere. In the center of the devastation stood Keine, facing off against the hell raven, Utsuho. Utsuho's eyes glowed a brilliant scarlet, as she glared at her foe. Keine was a tad scorched, and her shoulder was bruised. Utsuho pointed her control rod at Keine and fired one of her suns at her. She flew out of its path and right into the path of the next one, obscured from view by the first. Before it hit her however something flew past her at high speed. Suddenly the sun split down the middle before being reduced to sparks and embers. Youmu had cut the sun and was continuing her charge towards Utsuho.

Marisa and Sakuya came up besides Keine.

"About time some help got here, Rinnosuke took the villagers to safety, this youkai just started attacking the village out of the blue," Keine told them.

"Just leave her to us," Marisa told her smiling.

As Youmu approached Utsuho she fired a beam of burning energy at her. She evaded this preparing to draw her second sword, ready to slash her. Utsuho however responded by summoning several suns making them revolve around her. Youmu pulled back as she began to spawn several smaller danmaku in a large arc. Youmu slashed at the air spawning several danmaku of her own. Utsuho moved around dodging the half ghost's attacks.

Youmu was so focused on her own attack, that she failed to notice Utsuho had adjusted the orbit of her suns and one of them struck the swords women. She was thrown back, scorch marks and burns along her right side. Utsuho halted her attack and fired a sun in her direction. Before the attack reached her however she vanished. It was Sakuya and her luna dial that caused this to happen pulling her comrade from harms way. Immediately afterward Marisa flew towards her firing off stars and lasers at her.

She was hit a few times by this, then she thrust her hand forward a glowing sphere of light appearing orbited by two smaller ones. The attack slowly moved towards Marisa, and she easily moved out of the way. That however was just a distraction, as Utsuho flew towards her swinging her control rod. Marisa moved to her right dodging the assault. Immediately afterwards the hell raven kicked with her cement encased foot. She followed this with a blow from her control rod being swung down at the witch and then a quick jab, and finally an uppercut with her left hand.

All of these connected knocking the witch back almost off her broom. Youmu then flew past Utsuho slashing as she did so. Utsuho however shielded herself with her wings, reducing the damage she took from her swords. Then several knives appeared around her closing in fast. She summoned several glowing spheres around her that rotated about her. This deflected the knives harmlessly away.

Then Utsuho began to rapidly shoot suns at them. As if this wasn't chaotic enough she began shooting small round blue danmaku as well. The three of them maneuvered carefully as the massive projectiles whipped by them. Marisa turned to see one of them practically on top of her, however Youmu slashed it for her. Sparks and embers showered around them. Then several knives appeared around Utsuho, some of them where vaporized by the suns, however a large number of them shot towards the hell raven, wounding her shoulder side and leg.

This was enough to end her spell, as she slumped slightly and groaned in pain. Despite her injuries she refused to give in. she surrounded herself in a sun and spawned a field of bullets around her, startling Youmu, who had thought she had reached her limit. Suddenly an intense gravity began to pull everything in the vicinity. The three of them pulled back not wanting to be pulled into the sun. Sakuya threw knives at her as she dodged the various debris and danmaku being pulled towards her foe.

The sun however vaporized her knifes before they could hit. Youmu got ready to attack, however she backed off. The sun had grown to hot for her to approach it. Then she slashed the air to summon swarms of danmaku that flew towards the hell raven. Most of the danmaku was destroyed upon contact with the sun, however some of them managed to get through, scoring a hit or two. Marisa smiled as she fired her piercing laser burning Utsuho's shoulder.

She had to move soon after however as the remains of a house flew at her from behind. The debris burned up and disappeared. In response to getting hit Utsuho, expanded her sun, increasing the gravity. Then she began to fire an arc of pellet danmaku out at them. Boards and broken glass flew towards them. Dodging all that was going on was getting a bit tight.

Marisa continued to fire her laser, occasionally casting a look behind her shoulder to make sure nothing snuck up on her. Youmu continued her attack as well. Soon a whole tree was retched from the ground and flew straight at Sakuya. She was in the middle of dodging the pellets and so she didn't notice. The tree tumbled through the air drawing closer to the maid. Before it hit however, the tree split in two, falling away to the sun on both sides of Sakuya.

Sakuya looked back to see Youmu smiling at her before continuing her assault. Soon the gravity intensifies farther as the sun grows once more. One of the bullets manages to hit the end of Marisa's broom, making her veer right into two others. Soon she is tumbling through the air towards the sun. Youmu notices right away, but as she rushes towards the witch she ends up getting hit by some danmaku as well. Soon, Marisa has fallen into the sun itself before Sakuya can activate her luna dial.

"Marisa" Youmu calls out.

Suddenly the sun fluctuates a tad as a massive burst of magic erupts from the other side, both dieing down and disappearing shortly after. A smirking ,yet severely charred witch and unconscious hell raven plummet to the ground bellow. The combined might of the sun and her spark had destroyed her broom entirely. Youmu swoops down and catches the magician while Sakuya does the same for Utsuho.

"I hope you ordered extra crispy," Marisa commented to the ghost swords woman.

As they fly down to the ground, Orin can be seen wheeling away a full cart.

"You need to be more careful," Sakuya told Marisa.

"You had me worried for a second there," Youmu commented.

"Well I'm okay so there's no need to worry," Marisa replied.

"The village isn't okay though," Youmu sighed looking around.

Suddenly something caught her eye, there was a lady staring at them through a wall of flames. She had short black hair and was wearing a dark red kimono. She glared at Youmu with an icy stare.

"Who is that," she asked looking back towards the others, pointing behind her.

"Who are you talking about," Marisa said holding a hand above her eyes as she scanned the area.

"That lady right-," she began.

However when she turned to look where she was she was gone.

"There really was someone there," she told them.

"Well, whoever it was is gone now, I say we head to my place for the night," Marisa suggested.

"Do we really have to stay in that shabby little house," Sakuya remarked.

"There's nothing wrong with it, but it may be a little drafty, Alice blasted off my door this morning," Marisa replied.

"I think we should, then we can get up bright and early and go slash the culprit," Youmu exclaimed happily.

"Fine, but I call dibs on the bed," Sakuya retorted.

"I don't mind sleeping at my desk," Marisa commented.

"But where does that leave me," Youmu inquired.

"Well," Marisa said thinking about it.

"The floor I guess," she said after a little while.

"Oh, I see," she said hanging her head sounding a little depressed.

"I don't get guests often, so there are books and stuff on everything else," Marisa informed her.

Youmu considered this as they went, and soon had a big smile on her face.

"Then it's a good thing we have a maid to do something about it," She commented.

"You expect me to clean her house, not happening. So why are we brining her again," Sakuya asked indicating the hell raven she was carrying.

Youmu made a face and Sakuya laughed at her.

"When she wakes up, we might be able to get some information out of her," Marisa replied.

"If that's how it's going to be I'll just have to tidy the place myself," Youmu commented.

"She really must not want to sleep on the floor," Marisa laughed.

Soon the three of them were at Marisa's house. Youmu got a gleam in her eye as she rushed inside. Marisa followed shortly after.

"Time to clean," Youmu could be heard exclaiming from inside.

"Hey, wait, I thought you were kidding," Marisa replied.

Various noises sounded from the witches house.

"Hand that over, wait don't cut that," Marisa cried out.

"It'll fit better like this," she replied.

Sakuya sighed and shook her head. After a little while, Youmu came back out looking triumphant, a big smile on her face. Marisa came out too, her face covered with her hand as though she face palmed.

"So, you actually did it," Sakuya inquired.

"She did, this isn't any good, now how am I going to find anything," Marisa sighed.

"You did organize her books alphabetically right," Sakuya asked Youmu.

"Huh, I just figured books were books," Youmu replied.

Sakuya didn't know what to say.

"The best part is, I found a bed in the guest room," Youmu told them happily.

"I have a guest room," Marisa commented.

Sakuya smirked as she walked inside the surprisingly tidy house.

"Then where are we supposed to put her," Sakuya commented, indicating Utsuho.

"There is a comfy looking chair in the guest room to, she can have that," Youmu said determined not to lose the bed.

"If it's so comfy why don't you sleep on it," Sakuya teased.

"And wake up with a back ache," Youmu retorted.

Sakuya only smirked as she carried Utsuho to the guest room.

* * *

The next morning Reimu groggily sat up and looked around. She was on a futon covered with a blanket. She was still in her tattered bloody shrine maidens clothes. There was a sharp pain in her abdomen, so she placed her hand over it. She remembered getting stabbed by Youmu and looked around to see if Marin was nearby. She wasn't, but Hina was lying on a futon nearby. She got up ignoring the pain from her wound staggering towards the nearby sliding door. She threw it open stepping into the next room. Kanako and Suwako were at a table sitting on cushions. They were drinking tea and talking amongst themselves. As soon as she came out of the room, they turned towards her.

"Ah, so she's awake," Suwako commented.

"What are you two doing here," Reimu remarked.

"Well it is our shrine," Kanako answered bluntly.

"What happened, where's Marin, where did Marisa and the others go," She inquired.

"Whoa, hold on. Do you really think you should head out in your condition," Suwako inquired.

"What, this, this is nothing," she fibbed.

She forced a smile trying to hide her pain. Kanako sighed knowing how stubborn she was.

"Your pupil is actually training with Sanae, she insisted upon it," Suwako informed her.

"Is that so," Reimu said considering this.

She walked slowly over to the door and pulled it open before walking outside. Sanae and Marin were at the lake shore. Marin was intently watching Sanae and attempting to mimic her movements. She however wasn't doing all that good. She slowly approached them, they stopped what they were doing when they saw her and Marin rushed over to her.

"What are you doing walking about in your condition," she asked a tad worried.

"I'm not so feeble as to be slowed down by just this," Reimu remarked.

Marin felt like arguing it, but she knew Reimu wouldn't listen anyway.

"you really should listen to her," Sanae told her as they approached them.

"You too, it's only a flesh wound, I'll be fine," Reimu insisted.

"If your this set on going I guess I can't stop you, but before we go you should change your clothes, I brought one of your outfits from your shine while you were asleep, it's inside the shrine," Sanae told her.

"Who said you're going," Reimu inquired.

"You really expect me to just sit around here when I can help," she replied.

"Well if it means you won't get in my way, why not," Reimu sighed walking back towards the shrine.

* * *

Sakuya sat up in the bed and yawned. Apparently the bed was rather lumpy and uncomfortable and she wasn't able to sleep well. The thought that Youmu also had a difficult night on the chair made her smile. She leapt out of bed and headed out into the hall. As soon as she emerged from the room she could smell something nice. She followed her nose down the hallway and soon came to the kitchen. Youmu was preparing breakfast humming contently. Sakuya quietly walked up behind her.

"You sure look happy, how was the chair," Sakuya asked.

"Oh, good morning Sakuya, it was actually surprisingly comfortable, really," Youmu replied, only looking away from the food for a second.

"You're kidding," Sakuya said a little shocked.

"Well, I leaned back in the chair, and it reclined," Youmu said happily.

"Do you need any help with breakfast," Sakuya inquired.

"No, I'm fine, I'm used to this," Youmu replied with a smile.

"Well alright then," The maid said as she left the room.

Meanwhile in the guest room, Utsuho was waking up. She sat up in the bed looking around.

"Where am I," she asked aloud.

"You're in my house," Marisa said as she walked into the room.

Utsuho just stared at her so the witch continued.

"What do you remember happening before you got here," Marisa inquired.

"Well, I wanted to get a gift for Satori, so I snuck out of hell, I thought I could get something cool at the village up here," She recalled.

"Why didn't you just get something at the ancient city in former hell," Marisa asked her.

"Well so it would be a surprise of course," the hell raven replied.

"That's just silly, you wouldn't be able to surprise her no matter where you got it," Marisa commented.

"I don't remember getting to the village though," She commented.

"But you did, you destroyed the whole thing," Marisa informed her.

"What, oh no. Satori is going to be real mad at me now," Utsuho cried.

"Don't worry about it though, it's not your fault," Marisa added hastily.

"How do you figure that," She asked confused.

"It wasn't your fault," the witch assured her.

"You're not making any sense, wait, are you messing with me," Utsuho demanded.

"Alright, you asked for it, there is someone going around controlling youkai with a mystical item called the sapphire eye, that's why you can't remember what you did," Marisa informed her.

"Well if it means I won't be punished I guess I can believe you," Utsuho commented.

"So you didn't get a good look at the culprit," Marisa inquired.

"No, I don't remember seeing anyone out of the ordinary," she replied.

"Oh, so you don't know anything, you should head back to hell now," Marisa told her.

"Yeah, I could still get Satori a gift, but how will I make it a surprise." she considered.

"Oh, I know, I'll buy something without knowing what it is," Utsuho declared happily.

With that said she immediately left. Marisa shrugged and sat down in the chair. A little while latter Youmu entered the room.

"Breakfast is ready," Youmu informed her.

"Yeah, you didn't have to go through all this trouble," Marisa told her.

"It's no trouble at all," she replied.

Marisa followed her to the dining room, where there were several dishes of food on the table.

"You made all of this," Marisa asked surprised.

"I may have gotten a tad carried away," she admitted.

"Well it all looks good," Sakuya said filling her plate with food.

"Thanks," she replied happily.

After they all had their fill Marisa got up grinning grabbing her spare broom.

"Let's head back to the village to see if we can find something to point us in the right direction," Marisa suggested.

"Sounds like a good idea to me," Youmu agreed.

"It can't hurt," Sakuya commented.

The three of then set out from the house flying towards the village. However as soon as they reached the edge of the forest they stopped staring at what they saw. A massive castle now stood where the village used to be. It was made of dark stones and surrounded by a moat.

"well it looks like the culprit has made her next move, time to end this," Marisa commented.


	5. invading the enemy stronghold

The three shrine maidens set off from the shrine. Sanae was carrying Marin so as to avoid putting strain on Reimu. The sky was darkening, several clouds hanging in the sky.

"Are you sure Hina will be fine all by herself at the shrine," Reimu inquired.

"Well she does have Kanako and Suwako to look after her," Sanae replied.

"aren't those the kind of people she normally passed the misfortune on to," Reimu wondered aloud.

"I really didn't think of that," Sanae commented.

Before long they stopped surprised at what they saw. The village was gone, in it's place stood a massive castle composed of black stones. Marin gasped at the sight.

"What, I hope the villagers are okay," She commented.

"It's not like Keine to let something happen to the village," Reimu told the others.

"well, during that fight we saw that the village was on fire, that's when Marisa and the others left," Sanae told her.

"this must be it," Reimu commented as she began to fly towards the castle.

"hey, wait up," Sanae called following close behind.

As they drew closer to the castle, Parsee flew up to meet them, grinning at them with scarlet eyes. However she was not alone, as soon Meiling joined her.

"well, I didn't expect getting in to be easy," Reimu remarked pulling out some charms.

* * *

Marisa hovered in place looking at the massive castle before them.

"So, how do you suggest we enter," Sakuya inquired.

"We'll walk in the front door," Marisa replied grinning.

"Won't they know we're there if we do that," Sakuya sighed.

"it'll give us the element of anti-surprise," Marisa assured them.

"wait, I don't follow," Youmu commented.

"doesn't that mean she'll be expecting us," Sakuya explained shacking her head,

"well if we're expected, it'll be way easier to find her, and we won't get attacked, maybe they will get some snacks ready," Marisa explained.

"we're not exactly house guests here," Sakuya retorted.

Marisa only grinned as she began to fly closer. The castle was surrounded by a wide moat, and the drawbridge was raised. Before Marisa could think of a way past it, several globs of water came flying at them from the moat. They scattered trying to avoid them, however Youmu was hit by one causing her to flinch.

"where did that come from," Youmu commented.

"there," Marisa said pointing ahead.

The kappa, Nitori, was rising out of the moat with scarlet eyes and a wall of water behind her.

* * *

Meiling was the first to charge at them. She flew towards Reimu pulling her arm back lining up a punch. Reimu moved out of the way as the gate guard sped past. Then she turned towards the shrine maiden and flew forward again. This time she launched a kick, and even though she missed Reimu, several danmaku spread outward from her foot where she stopped. She dodged these and retaliated with a flurry of amulets. While this was going on Parsee was attacking the other two. She was making rings of danmaku which began to drift towards Sanae and Marin. Sanae focused on dodging the danmaku, while Marin fired some charms at the youkai. Parsee drifted back and forth, managing to evade most of the charms. Marin frowned as she held her hand above her head summoning forth the colorful energy. Then she drew the circle with her gohei and blasted forth her colorful burst of magic. Parsee attempted to evade the attack, however she was still caught in it, throwing her back.

"yeah, I actually hit my target," Marin exclaimed.

Sanae sighed at this remark. The jealousy youkai was quick to recover however. She began to hurl bubble bullets at them. Sanae was able to dodge, and they soon saw that they were leaving behind trails of flower shaped danmaku. A sudden movement by Sanae to dodge one of the bullets caused Marin to loose her balance momentarily. She accidentally put her hands in front of Sanae's face. The split second of not being able to see caused them to get struck by a bubble bullet throwing both of them from the sky. The two of them fell into the moat with a loud splash. Reimu heard the splash and flew towards the source of the noise only to be blocked by Parsee.

"she can't swim," Reimu muttered under her breath.

She was surrounded now. She pulled out the makeshift gohei that Sanae had made for her. Parsee summoned a copy of herself and began to shoot several small bullets, while the copy unleashed bubble bullets. Meiling then began to release several multicolored shard danmaku which flew at her in a flurry of color. Reimu flung charms at Meiling as she carefully maneuvered through their combined attacks. She was barely bumped by a bubble bullet almost sending her into a swarm of Meiling's colorful bullets. She grumbled batting the next one away with her gohei, as she lined up the needles she threw at Parsee. Then she lobbed a yin yang at each of them. Finally their attacks ceased. Reimu took this opportunity to rush straight at Meiling and attempt a flying kick. However being rather skilled in martial arts, she evaded the attack and countered with a punch to her gut. Somehow she had managed to hit her wound, causing the shrine maiden to cry out in pain. Meiling then proceeded to sock her in the face and finished with a swift kick. She was thrown back into the castle wall. She ended up slumped against the wall on an overhang, breathing heavily. The two of them loomed over her cackling. Her wound was throbbing now. She didn't know if she even had the strength to stand, but she refused to give in. she slowly and painfully stood, blood beginning to stain her clothes. Thunder clapped in the dark sky above. She pulled out some more charms, prepared to fight on. Before anything else happened however, Sanae rose in front of her.

"leave these two to me," She called to the shrine maiden, her eyes not leaving the youkai before her.

"Marin," Reimu began, when Sanae cut her off.

"She'll be fine, just take it easy for a little while, how else are we going to beat the culprit without you," Sanae replied still not turning to her.

"you make such a convincing argument," Reimu chuckled sitting back down.

Meiling charged at Sanae, but veered away when a colorful burst of magic shot past her from behind. Marin rose into view smiling atop a blue and white yin yang wobbling slightly.

"don't forget about me," she called out confidently.

Meiling and Parsee looked at each other and smiled. Meiling charged right at Marin, while Parsee summoned a green mist that moved towards Sanae spawning bullets in it's wake. Sanae threw charms at Parsee as she backed away from the mist as it pursued her. Meiling approached Marin at a fast pace making her move out of the way swiftly. The fast motion almost made the amateur shrine maiden loose her balance. She threw some charms managing to hit with a couple of them. Meiling then spun about to face her and began spawning shard danmaku. They formed around her in a pattern resembling a flower before flying towards Reimu's apprentice. She weaved about nearly getting hit on multiple occasions. She retaliated by firing yin yang orbs, however they were way off and didn't come close to hitting her.

"oh, if only I could make my attacks home like Miss Hakurai," Marin grumbled as she weaved through the pattern.

She launched another yin yang and managed to score a hit. She pumped her fist in triumph, however Meiling only grinned. The gate guard whistled and several fairies lined up behind her shooting kunai at the apprentice shrine maiden. While they did that, Meiling scattered round blue danmaku around. Marin wobbled about dodging the attacks, a kunai occasionally coming to close for comfort, tearing her clothes and leaving a small cut. Before she knew it Meiling was upon her getting in close for a punch. It was too late to dodge, but it wasn't Marin the attack was aimed for. Meiling struck the yin yang she rode upon hard, causing cracks to radiate outward from the point of impact. Within seconds the sphere crumbled beneath her and she began to fall to the ground below. Sanae saw this happen, however Parsee wasn't about to let her go to Marin's aid. The apprentice shrine maiden closed her eyes and screamed, as Meiling smiled down at her watching her fall. suddenly Marin felt herself stop falling so she opened her eyes.

"Reimu," She gasped.

She smiled at her apprentice as she lowered her to the ground.

"your bleeding, I would have been fine, I don't want you to suffer because of me," she told her.

Reimu sighed and shook her head.

"wh, what's the matter," Marin stammered.

"you can levitate a yin yang, but not yourself," she explained to her apprentice.

Marin's face reddened and she stared down at the ground.

"I never thought of it like that before," She admitted.

Marin looked up at Reimu and her eyes widened in fear. She pushed Reimu away, knocking her to the ground. Shortly after an energy sphere launched by Meiling Rammed into Marin knocking her to the ground. Marin leapt back to her feet and shook her fist angrily at Meiling.

"how dare you attack someone when their not looking, have you no honor," Marin exclaimed.

"didn't you do just that a little while ago," Reimu inquired.

"I did? oops," Marin replied.

She turned her attention back to Meiling.

"regardless, I'm goanna take you down for even thinking of harming Reimu," Marin exclaimed.

She leapt up and began to float up into the air, a little shakily at first before smoothing out.

"wow, I'm really doing it I'm flying, I'm really flying," Marin exclaimed ecstatic.

Just as quickly her face became serious once more as she flew towards Meiling. The fairies from earlier were now chatting amongst themselves and didn't bother attacking. Meiling grinned and flew towards Marin. She kicked in a sweeping upward arc that Marin ducked under. However, Meiling then drove her foot down on top of Marin's head, causing her to shriek. Marin pulled back and threw charms at her, which Meiling evaded rather easily. Marin continued her assault with some yin yang orbs. The first two flew past her, but the third hit Meiling square in the face. The gate guard growled angrily now sporting a black eye. Meiling rushed at her and shot her fist forward. Marin put her gohei before her in a defensive stance. She managed to stop the blow, however the force of it still pushed her back a ways. Then Meiling spun as she approached her again, colorful energy radiating from her. Marin dodged to the right, however she drifted a bit too far and ran into the group of fairies. They angrily pushed her away shouting at her. Soon Meiling was before her again punching her in the gut, then across the face, and soon after elbowed her in the gut as well. Marin pulled back rather winded by the assault. Sanae then flew up to Meiling and tapped her on the shoulder. When Meiling turned to her Sanae socked her in the face.

"thanks for keeping her occupied," Sanae called to the apprentice shrine maiden.

Marin looked around, now seeing Parsee knocked out under a tree. She smiled back at Sanae, even though she hurt all over. Meiling was far from finished however. The gate guard waved her hand before her spawning several shard danmaku. Sanae retaliated by drawing a star of danmaku. She then spread them out about her before sending them towards Meiling. Meiling carefully maneuvered, ducking and weaving to avoid her attack. Then Marin flew beside Sanae and began to add her charms and Yin yang orbs forcing a smile. This threw off Meiling's timing and she took several hits, this was enough to finish her and send her plummeting to the ground. Marin quickly flew and caught Meiling, almost dropping her. She then lowered to the ground and put her down gently. She then flew up to where Sanae and Reimu were now flying.

"whoever is behind this is really going to get it," Reimu remarked as she sped towards the castle, the others following.

* * *

Marisa leapt back to avoid getting pelted by a barrage of water spheres. She swung her broom foreword knocking away the last of them. Sakuya was throwing knives at her. Nitori was altering the path of the knives with her water making them fly wide, some of them almost hitting Youmu. The half ghost gardener yelped as one of them came to close cutting her arm. Youmu then flew right for her aiming to slash her, however Nitori shot her skyward with a jet of water. Lightning sounded in the sky above.

"not more water," Sakuya commented.

Then, Nitori pulled more water up around her before causing it to cascade forward towards the three. They quickly took to the sky to escape the torrent of water gushing towards them. Even though she splashed the water pretty high, she seemed unable to reach them with it. Sakuya grinned arrogantly as she lined up several knives sending them on their course towards the kappa. The violent typhoon of water easily threw the knives off their course, and they were soon rebounded upon them.

"enough fooling around," Marisa remarked pulling out her hakero.

The others quickly got behind Marisa as she thrust the magical artifact forward and let loose a massive laser. The rebounded knives were gone in an instant and it plowed onward towards the swirling waters. The laser was not able to get past Nitori's vast stores of water, but did vaporize a good deal of it. Then the three of them began to feel rain drops. Before long it was pouring. Nitori reached her hands into the air a grin spreading across her face. Sakuya threw several knives. Youmu slashed the air spawning waves of danmaku. Marisa fired several piercing lasers. Although Nitori tried to block and deflect their assault, the lasers burned a hole in her defenses letting the other shots through. Although she had gotten hit by a good number of danmaku and knives she had them where she wanted them. The kappa clenched her fists and the three of them were enveloped in water from the rain. The three of them, startled by this, struggled to escape to no avail. Youmu attempted to cut her way out, but the water resealed almost immediately after each swing. Marisa had tried firing off lasers with similar results. Nitori cackled as she clenched her hand harder increasing the pressure of the water making it harder to hold their breath. Bubbles erupted from Youmu and Sakuya's Mouths. Marisa winced as she held out, preparing one last spark. She thrust her hakero forward only to see it float out of her hand. She clenched her hand in anger as the last of her breathe escaped. The next thing she knew, she was gasping for air, struggling up from the ground. There were shards of ice all over the ground and a chill in the air.

"You may look tough when you fight bakas like these," Cirno was saying pointing at the three of them.

"but I bet you didn't expect someone like me to show up," the ice fairy continued.

"please tell me that didn't just happen," Sakuya murmured.

"We were just saved, right," Youmu replied.

"Exactly," Sakuya sighed.

The majority of the moat was frozen now, and the rain had become snow. Nitori snarled at the newcomer and flew up out of the moat. She bean firing green lasers about. Cirno scoffed at this and flicked her hair back then grinned. She thrust her palms outward sending ice fragments out around her. As one of the lasers drew near she leapt up to avoid it sending out more ice shards, all of which were lingering in the air. She weaved through the lasers laughing the entire time like it was some sort of game. Then she showed her teeth in a satisfied grin as she pointed at Nitori. The kappa glared at her as she prepared to attack. Cirno smiled again as she formed a fist. As soon as she had, all of the lingering shards of Ice shot towards Nitori. The fragments of ice felt like a hundred frigid needles piercing her in quick succession. The kappa's mouth hung open as she fell into a bank of snow.

"like I thought, now to get the culprit," Cirno commented as flew over to the drawbridge.

"wait, you know who it is," Youmu inquired.

"well it's pretty obvious, this great big castle appearing overnight, the person who was using that rabbit to make everyone go crazy must be inside," the ice fairy stated in a matter of fact way, as she tugged on the draw bridge.

"the rabbit," Youmu commented aloud looking rather confused.

She imagined Reisen with a sinister look on her face commanding Utsuho to attack the human village.

"step aside, leave the introduction to me," Marisa said fumbling through her pockets.

"what are you going to do," Cirno asked looking back at her.

Now Marisa was looking around franticly. She soon saw what she sought sticking out of a pile of ice and snow. She gleefully walked over to it and kneeled down to pick up the octagon shaped block of wood. Then her eyes widened in fear, she slowly reached towards her hakero which lay in pieces in the snow.

"no," She cried out angrily pounding the ground with her fist.

She gently picked up the fragments and slid them in her pocket.

"Rinnosuke, yeah that's right, he'll be able to fix this," She said aloud hastily.

She looked around before remembering that the human village had been destroyed.

"we need to go find him," She insisted.

Sakuya sighed.

"we don't have time for that Marisa, we need to resolve this now, before it gets any farther out of hand," the maid told her sternly.

"yeah, you're right," Marisa sighed knowing she was right.

"say Cirno, how did you get us out of that water anyways," Marisa wondered aloud.

"simple, I froze you guys and let you fall to the ground," she replied not taking her eyes off the draw bridge she was still trying to get to budge.

"what, that could have killed us," Sakuya roared at her.

"step back little fairy, I'll open the gate," Youmu told her putting her hand on her swords handle.

The fairy flew to the side as Youmu swiftly flew over to the base of the draw bridge. She pulled out her sword and held it out sideways besides her pointing away from her. Then she flew up along the wooden barrier at remarkable speed. When she passed the top she stopped and returned her sword to it's sheathe. A second latter the draw bridge fell to pieces tumbling into the frozen moat below.

"way to go team, now I your leader will lead you to victory," Cirno commented thrusting her fist in the air with a huge grin on her face.

Before she could continue she had noticed that they had ignored her and were going inside the castle already.

"hey, I'm the leader, wait for me," Cirno cried out as she chased after them.


	6. welcoming committee

The interior of the castle was decorated with red carpets, decorative chandeliers, and various strange portraits and statues. The lighting was rather dim and it was eerily quiet. The only creature stirring was the occasional fairy maid, though they ignored them as they attended to their duties. Youmu was a tad on edge, her hand ready on her sword in case anything should jump out at them. Sakuya on the other hand looked practically at home. Marisa was grinning unable to contain her excitement. While Cirno opted to "lead" from the back looking about the hall curiously.

"You think maybe these maids know where the culprit is," Marisa suggested.

"I doubt that, you can't expect every servant to know where the mistresses quarters are, you would need the head maid," Sakuya told them.

"You really think so," Marisa said with a grin.

"Well I do know what I'm talking about," Sakuya replied smugly.

They continued to walk down the dim hallway, Cirno flying behind them until they came to a large room. It was well furnished with couches and chairs. There was a table trimmed in gold with a tea pot and cups set atop it. There were even some cookies too. Next to it sat a small slip of paper. Marisa walked over to it and snatched up the paper and read it aloud.

"Dear Marisa and friends, welcome to my beloved castle. I am sorry I can not meet with you in person quite yet. Why not enjoy a small snack while you wait," Marisa read from the paper.

Sakuya eyed the tea and cookies suspiciously.

"That's odd, it isn't even signed, oh well, lets dig in," Marisa said reaching for the platter.

Sakuya slapped her hand away before she could touch the cookie she had reached for.

"What was that for," Marisa yelped holding her hand.

"What do you think your doing, this could be a trap, this stuff could be poisoned," Sakuya replied.

"well I'm hungry, can't we just find someone to test them on," Marisa grumbled.

The two of them then turned to Cirno, who hesitantly backed away from them.

"Hey, you're not feeding me poison," the ice fairy told them waving her hands before her.

"What are you talking about," Youmu inquired.

Sakuya sighed and faced her ready to explain the situation. However when she looked at her she froze. Marisa too looked at her and she went pale. Youmu was sipping tea and munching busily on a cookie.

"Oh no, she did," Marisa gasped in shock.

"We need to make her throw it back up now," Sakuya said seriously .

"What," Youmu gasped taking a step back.

Marisa ran behind the half ghost gardener and held her for Sakuya. However before the maid could do anything Youmu slumped over in Marisa's arms.

"Youmu," Marisa said concerned shaking her slightly.

"No, now she's a full ghost" Marisa exclaimed letting her slide from her grasp.

Sakuya approached her and smirked.

"She's still alive she's only unconscious, well we still shouldn't eat those," Sakuya informed her.

Sakuya and Marisa picked up and carried Youmu over to one of the couches and set her down on it. She looked like she was sleeping peacefully using her spirit half as a pillow.

"We can't just leave her here, she might get attacked," Marisa commented.

"She'll be fine if I stay with her, you go on ahead, we'll catch up with you latter," Sakuya suggested.

"Come on Cirno, let's go," Marisa called out to her.

She was by the tray of treats contemplating something.

"I was thinking, maybe they wouldn't affect me since I'm so strong," Cirno told them.

"I doubt that," Marisa said walking over to her, "but maybe we could trick someone into eating them,"

She took some and put them in her pocket.

"Knowing you, you'll probably forget their drugged and eat them yourself," Sakuya remarked.

Marisa only chuckled lightly. She then proceeded down one of the other passageways Cirno following close behind.

* * *

The three shrine maidens had entered through the window, after Marin blasted away the iron bars on it with her spell. She did go a little overboard though as there was a huge hole in the wall opposite from the window. The room appeared to be a study of some kind with shelves of books lining the walls. The wall that had been blasted also had a bookshelf, which was now a smoldering mess.

"How do you think they were able to build this castle so quickly," Sanae wondered looking around the room.

"I'm not sure," Reimu replied thinking about it.

Marin was surveying the damage she had caused peeking into the next room. It looked to be storage with several unmarked boxes. She slowly crept over to one and began to open it when Reimu called out to her. She stopped what she was doing and went back into the other room.

"Yes miss Hakurai," Marin said as she entered the room.

"Please try not to wander off, who knows what is lurking here," Reimu told her.

"Oh, of course," Marin replied.

Sanae opened a nearby door, this one led to a hallway. She cautiously peeked out into the hall. Not a soul was to be seen.

"Looks like they don't have any guards posted inside," Sanae remarked.

The three of them entered the hall this one bearing a close resemblance to the one Marisa and the others encountered. Reimu began to walk down the hall and the others followed. Surprisingly there was nobody around. Before long they reached a door at the other end of the room. They opened it and entered another room. It was a small square room with a door on each of the four walls. Marin ran to the center of the room and turned back to the others.

"We could each check one of the doors," she suggested.

"I don't think now is exactly the best time to split up, especially just because there are multiple doors," Sanae replied.

"Oh," Marin sighed looking down.

"Well I have a good feeling about the one on the right," Reimu commented.

"Oh yeah, Reimu's intuition, how could I forget about that," Marin chuckled walking over to the door she picked.

This lead to a short hallway and another square room like the first.

"Another one," Marin commented aloud.

"Yeah, this is some rather strange room layout," Sanae added.

"Well it's not a dead end," Marin pointed out.

Reimu picked out another door, and another hallway was behind it. At the end of this hall was another square room. Reimu scratched her head now slightly confused.

"It must just be a big maze," Sanae rationalized.

The others shook their head in agreement. After another five minutes of picking random doors, they were still in a small square room.

"Something isn't right here, we should have at least encountered a dead end by now," Sanae commented.

"For all we know the end could be behind one of these doors," Marin commented.

"I agree with Sanae, there is something weird about these rooms, maybe you have to pick the right door, like a kind of magical maze," Reimu suggested.

Sanae considered this for a bit.

"Then how are we going to know if we made any progress," Sanae inquired.

Reimu smiled as she pulled out a couple charms and dropped them to the ground. Sanae didn't say anything and Marin scratched her head.

"We'll leave something in each room we encounter, this way we'll know which rooms we have been to already and can figure out the way forward," she explained.

"It is worth a shot," Sanae agreed.

They picked one of the doors and followed the following passage. The room they ended up in still looked the same, but the charms Reimu dropped were not there.

"This is a different room, so do we put charms down here too," Marin inquired.

"It would have to be something different so we can tell the rooms apart, or we'll be back where we started," Reimu replied.

"Oh, well in that case," Marin began digging in her pockets.

She pulled out some yen and dropped it to the floor.

"Are you sure you want to do that," Sanae inquired.

"If it will help then it's worth it," she replied grinning.

"Well, alright then," Sanae replied.

They picked yet another door and ventured into the hall beyond. Sitting in the middle of said hall was Suika.

"Suika," Reimu called out to her.

She leapt up and turned towards them.

"Oh, I didn't know you were here too," the little oni replied.

"Are you lost too," Marin inquired.

"Well," She began scratching her head.

"It sure seems like it," Reimu commented.

"Okay, you're right, I am lost, but this place is strange," Suika replied.

"You should come with us, I think Reimu almost has it figured out," Sanae told her.

"Really, then lead the way," The oni told them.

The shrine maidens with the oni close behind continued into the next room. There were no signs of the things they left on the ground. Sanae pulled out a frog plushy and placed it on the ground.

"Awe, that's so cute," Marin commented admiring it.

"I didn't know you still played with dolls," Reimu observed.

"Hey, don't make fun of me," Sanae replied.

Reimu just chuckled.

"Oh, I see, marking the rooms, that's rather clever," Suika commented.

The four of them picked another door and proceeded to the next room. The one they found was also empty. Suika stepped forward pulling a few strands of hair, throwing them in the air. She transformed them into a miniature clone which now stood at the center of the room. With a wide smile on her face she pointed to one of the doors.

"This one feels like a winner," the oni commented grinning.

This time however there were some charms in the center of the room.

"Oh no, we're back at the beginning," Marin wailed.

She quickly pointed at one of the doors.

"We must have took a wrong turn in that last room, if we take the same path we should get back in no time," Marin continued.

The others thought about this for a second and decided to go along with it. They went down the same path they had first gone down. However instead of the yen, Sanae's plush was there instead.

"How can that be," Marin wondered aloud.

"Whoever is doing this must be manipulating these rooms, changing our destination whenever we get close," Suika suggested.

"Then these markers aren't going to help," Reimu sighed.

Sanae quickly snatched her plushy back up after hearing that and hugged it close to her like a child.

"If they send us away whenever we get close how will we get out of here," Marin inquired.

"We won't be able to do it taking any one route, however if we each take different routes one of us may be able to make it to them," Suika offered.

"So you're saying we need to split up," Sanae replied.

"Yeah, it may be the only chance we have to get out of this trap," Suika replied.

"I suppose this could work," Reimu considered.

"Wait a minute, we can't just split up," Marin exclaimed.

The others looked at her so she continued.

"Well Reimu is hurt, you really expect her to fight whoever it is on her own," She commented.

"I think your just worried about yourself," Sanae told her with a smile.

"What, not at all," she said hastily.

"Don't be too worried, if you do end up with them first you'll just have to distract them a little while we find our way there," Suika assured her.

Suika, Reimu and Sanae each picked a door and soon Marin was all by herself. Sanae had been right, her concern had not been for Reimu. She had realized that she was pitiful when not aided by Reimu or the others. Whoever was manipulating these rooms surely was more powerful then anyone she had faced thus far. She sat down on the ground and sighed,

"Maybe if I just wait here they'll find her on their own," She commented aloud.

She shook her head. She knew that taking the easy way out wouldn't accomplish anything. If Reimu, wounded as she was, would not back down, neither would she. Marin leapt to her feet and faced one of the four doors leading from the room. She rushed towards it, pulling it open and darted through. She raced down the short hall and yanked open the door at the opposite end.

What she found on the other side was a rather large room with elaborate carpets. There was also a chandelier overhead. A lady stood in the center of the room. She wore a fancy white and purple dress. Her blonde hair hung down to her shoulders from beneath her white hat which was decorated with a red ribbon. She held a parasol in her right hand. She was watching strange distortions in the air in front of her. Each showed one of the other three.

"He, hey who are you and what do you think your doing," Marin stuttered.

She waved her hand and the distortions vanished. She slowly turned towards Marin glaring at her with scarlet eyes.

"Uh, if your busy I can always come back latter," Marin commented taking a step back out of fear.

She pointed her parasol at her and fired off five thin lasers. Marin gasped and threw herself to the ground, the lasers sailing over her head. Then she pulled out a fan and waved it in front of her spawning several kunai. The knives raced towards Marin sticking into the ground around her. Some of them hit her causing her to cry out. She struggled to her feet yanking the knives from her shoulder and leg. She winced after doing this, a little blood seeping from her wounds.

"Enough," Marin roared holding her hand above her head.

She glowed with the colorful light and drew the circle with her gohei. She then thrust her palm forward and shot forth the colorful burst of light. Her foe only smirked thrusting her hand out before her. A dark distortion appeared swallowing her attack. Before she knew it she was struck from the right by a powerful burst of magic.

"wh, what was that," she managed as she pushed herself up off the ground with her arms.

The lady then stepped through the distortion and was now right next to her. Before the shrine maiden could say anything else she kicked her in the gut. Marin cried out as she slumped back to the ground. Then she put her foot on Marin's back and pointed her parasol right at her head. The shrine maiden struggled, but couldn't escape. Right as she fired more lasers she was thrown back away from Marin. The lasers flew wide hitting the wall and ceiling.

Marin struggled to her feet and looked around. The blonde lady was standing once again across from the oni, Suika, who moments ago had kicked her across the room.

"Yukari, I should have guessed it was you," Suika commented.

Yukari only grinned. Suika then turned her attention to Marin.

"Wow, she sure did a number on you," Suika told her as she came closer.

Suika reached for one of Marin's sleeves and pulled it off. She tore it into strips and tied one to her arm over her shoulder and another to her leg. Marin waved her bare arm around a little.

"It feels strange with only one sleeve," she commented aloud.

Then the oni turned back to Yukari who had made her next move. She had held up her hand and formed a magic circle. the circle shown brightly and Ran appeared before her. Yukari pointed right at Marin and the shikigami rushed right for her. Suika intercepted the nine tailed foxes attack with a punch throwing her into the wall.

"Leave her out of this, I can take you both on myself," Suika declared.

She flashed Marin a smile but was confused when Marin didn't return her smile. Suika turned back to Yukari and her shikigami, who had gotten back up. Ran held her hand up and formed a similar magical circle to Yukari's. Soon the nimble form of Chen her cat shikigami appeared. the three of them stared at Suika menacingly with scarlet eyes.

"Maybe that wasn't the best thing to say," Suika considered aloud.

"You know, I don't care what you say," Marin shouted coming besides Suika her gohei at the ready.

"Huh," Suika replied a little confused.

"It doesn't matter how inept you think I am, I'm fighting too," She shot back.

'That's not what I meant, but she's probably as stubborn as Reimu,' Suika thought to herself.

"Well, I hope you know what you're doing," Suika remarked before charging at the three foes.

"Quit trying to be the star of the battle," Marin commented pulling out some charms.

Chen leapt back, away from Suika's attack and began to dart about the room spawning several danmaku. These soon split into smaller pellet danmaku that sped towards Suika and Marin. Suika made an opening for herself by using her power of density to cluster some of them together. Marin weaved her way through shooting her charms at all three opponents. Only a couple hit Chen, Ran moved whenever they got close, and Yukari gapped them back at Marin when they drew close to her. To assist her shikigami Ran started to fire bubble bullets in a wide arc.

Then Yukari erected a border to their right and left so that if their bullets passed one border, they would appear from the other. Chen continued to dart around adding more bullets to those chaotically flying about. Marin flung some yin yang orbs and Suika punched the ground creating a trail of fireballs that incinerated everything in their path. Chen managed to fly right into one of the yin yang orbs while the others flew past their targets impacting the walls. Suika's fire trail burned it's way towards Ran. The nine tailed fox thrust her hand forward and let loose a barrage of danmaku and charms.

The fireball burst mere feet away from her making her shield her eyes. Right behind it however was Suika throwing a brutal punch, catching her square in the face. The shikigami was thrown back, Yukari catching her . At the same time Marin was throwing a storm of charms at Chen who was flying about gracefully dodging them. Then the cat moved really fast her path forming a star. She spawned several arrowhead danmaku that moved towards Marin and then suddenly moved to the right.

Immediately afterward she started the next wave, these ones veering off to the left. She dodged a little before lifting her hand in the air. She was surrounded by the colorful energy once more. She drew a circle before her and thrust her hand towards it launching all the energy at once. Her attack raced forward erasing danmaku before slamming into Chen. Both shikigami now lay in front of Yukari who frowned slightly as she took down her borders.

She gestured to her left and right forming two gaps. Then she gestured towards Marin producing a gap beneath her dropping her between the first two. She hit the ground rather hard crying out in pain. Soon a sound was heard sounding from the first of the gaps. It was faint at first but soon was a loud booming noise. There was a click clack occasionally accompanied by a whistle.

Marin was breathing heavily now and was having a hard time getting up. Suika gasped knowing what was coming. She rushed to Marin's side, but before she could reach down and pick her up the train was nearly upon them. Instead the oni turned towards the train, planted her feet and pulled back her fist. Pouring as much density as she could into her fist she threw it at the train barreling towards her. There was a tremendous impact and a rather loud clang.

The impact severely dented the front of the train, though it was not enough to stop it. She had however managed to divert the train a little. The train continued barreling forward knocking Suika away before tearing through the wall. Yukari hastily opened another gap for the train to go through removing it from the castle. When the dust cleared Marin slowly got up and looked around.

"Suika," She called out a tad worried.

Marin noticed one of Suika's horns and rushed over. The oni was lying in a small pile of debris passed out.

"Suika," she called again shaking her lightly.

However the oni didn't stir. Marin turned towards Yukari and glared at her. Yukari smirked back. Marin held up her hand surrounding herself in the colorful energy. She drew the circle with her gohei and unleashed the powerful burst of magic. Marin however in her rage had hastily shot it off, her attack flew wide, right past Yukari.

Marin then formed a fist with her hand and pulled it back towards her. Suddenly her attack split apart into five spheres which flew towards Yukari. She was a little surprised by this at first, almost getting hit. However she managed to dodge the rest rather easily.

"How did I do that," Marin wondered aloud flexing her hand.

Yukari was soon right on top of Marin having gapped in close. She reached out grabbing her by the neck. Marin tried to pry her hand free but could not. Yukari slammed her back against the wall tightening her grasp, a cruel smile on her face. The apprentice shrine maiden gasped for breath beginning to feel light headed. Then a yin yang orb hit Yukari in the side of the head, loosening her grip on Marin.

The shrine maiden slumped to the ground and Yukari turned to face the newcomer. However it wasn't just one but two. Reimu and Sanae now stood across from the youkai of boundaries. Reimu threw charms at her making her leap away from her apprentice. Reimu walked over to her and kneeled down next to her to see if she was okay.

"Don't worry about me, it'll take more than that to do me in," Marin coughed.

"You should rest now anyway, let us handle the rest," Reimu told her.

This time Marin really didn't have the energy to argue it and just nodded in agreement before walking back over to Suika.

"I had a good feeling you were the one manipulating those rooms," Reimu said turning her attention to Yukari.

The youkai replied by holding her fan in front of her face to obscure all but her eyes. Then she lifted her parasol and pointed it at the shrine maiden. Sanae and Reimu prepared themselves for her next move.

* * *

Cirno had once again insisted to take up the rear, following the witch as she strode down the corridor. The few fairy maids they had seen up until this point were nowhere to be seen and the passage was rather quiet, save for the occasional boom of thunder from outside.

"Where is everyone, did they just chicken out or what," the ice fairy remarked shaking her head.

"They've got to be around her somewhere. Just be ready for someone to pop out suddenly and try to surprise us," Marisa responded.

"Oh, hide and seek huh, I'm a pro at that game," She laughed happily.

She suddenly took off down the hall.

"Hey, wait a minute," Marisa called after her mounting her broom to keep up with the fairy.

Cirno was darting about poking her head in doors before moving on, not actually searching all that thoroughly. Then something caught her eye, so she ventured inside. Marisa followed shortly after.

"Found you," Cirno shouted pointing at a caped individual.

She had green hair and a pointed hat. She turned around baring a wicked smile and scarlet eyes.

"Mima," Marisa whispered taking a step backwards.

"Huh, you know this trouble maker, who is she anyways" Cirno inquired.

Mima held her hand out to her side and her staff materialized in her hand. She pointed it right at Marisa who took a step back. Cirno flew in front of Marisa putting her hands on her hips and grinning confidently.

"I'm gonna punish you for all the trouble you've been causing," The ice fairy told the spirit hovering before her.

Mima chuckled as she fired a beam at her from her staff. Cirno easily dodged it and laughed.

"is that it, I expected a little more then that," Cirno taunted.

Cirno flew in a little closer getting ready to launch another attack. Mima then waved her staff spawning magic circles in a circle around Cirno on the ground. A laser burst up from each surrounding the fairy.

"Wh, what is this," Cirno exclaimed.

Then Mima thrust her free hand forward launching another laser. She quickly swept it across the area she had confined Cirno to. She started at the top moving downward. Cirno dove for the floor the laser vanishing just before hitting her. Then Mima swept another laser from bottom to top. Cirno however was too slow and was struck by the laser. The laser cage shortly vanished. The fairy was now a bit singed.

"Don't just stand there daydreaming," Cirno shouted at Marisa as she got ready to attack again.

Marisa snapped out of her daze and immediately reached for her pocket. Her hand however stopped short and she face palmed. She thrust her palm towards Mima and fired an average sized laser. At about the same time Cirno had held her hands above her head and spawned a chunk of ice. She hurled this at the vengeful spirit. Mima shattered the ice with her staff and rose into the air to evade the laser as well.

Next the ghost turned her attention to Marisa. With a wave of her staff she spawned stars in a circle around her. One by one they began to move towards her. While this was happening she swept more lasers across the room horizontally making dodging more complicated. Marisa dodged the first couple stars before ducking under the laser. She immediately began to sweep another one back the other way.

Cirno was not about to sit by and let her have her way. The ice fairy extended her palm towards the vengeful spirit and unleashed a barrage of icicles. She managed to hit causing Mima to flinch and her laser to vanish early moments before hitting Marisa. Then the vengeful spirit floated up into the air summoning several stars about her. She waved her hand and the stars began to move about her some of them shooting out at Cirno and Marisa. Then she pointed her staff and fired a larger laser then before.

Marisa quickly leapt to the side to dodge the laser mounting her broom afterward. She flew up after her firing stars of her own. Cirno too flew up towards her spawning pieces of ice in a row leading towards her foe, making them shatter moments after she created them showering the area in ice shards. Mima continued to fire lasers at them at a quick rate forcing them to veer away from the deadly beams. Mima continued to also pour out stars making them spiral out around her. Cirno saw these as her chance to counter attack.

She threw her arms in the air in preparation for perfect freeze. Before she could launch her attack however one of Mima's lasers struck her head on throwing her back. She hit the wall hard managing to stay in the air a couple seconds before falling to the floor.

"Cirno" Marisa called out almost getting hit herself.

The witch grit her teeth glaring angrily at Mima. She thrust her palms forward. She intended to spark, hakero or no hakero. The resulting burst of energy was underwhelming and was less then one third of her sparks normal size. Not much bigger then one of her regular lasers. Mima shook her head and sighed.

She lifted her hand above her head and thrust it at Marisa. She unleashed a massive burst of energy like crackling black lightning towards the witch. The attack connected throwing the witch from her broom. She crashed to the ground landing awkwardly on the table at the end of the room, her broom landing not to far away. The witch looked around spotting Cirno unconscious on the ground. Marisa quickly leapt to her feet and came face to face with Mima.

The vengeful spirit struck her over the head with her staff knocking her back to the ground. She pointed her staff right at the back of the witch's head and prepared to fire another laser.


	7. Queen of the castle

Mima stood over Marisa ready to fire off her laser at point blank into the young witches face. Marisa cringed expecting the worst.

"Hey, what are you doing," a voice called out from behind the vengeful spirit.

While Mima turned to see who it was, Marisa sprang to her feet. Then she quickly reclaimed her broom. Mima now realizing that Marisa had slipped away glared angrily at the newcomer. She had blue hair and a blue and pink dress. She also wore a black hat decorated with a peach. Mima roared in anger as she fired a laser at her.

Tenshi managed to evade it and thrust her hand forward, sending one of her keystones flying towards Mima. The vengeful spirit lifted off the ground, the keystone almost hitting Marisa who was about to fire off a spray of stars at Mima. Then Tenshi pulled out her sword and pointed it skyward. She was surrounded in a scarlet energy as she rocketed up, aiming the attack at Mima. The vengeful spirit moved but not enough to completely evade the trail of scarlet energy that followed Tenshi. The celestial was now floating across from the vengeful spirit, Marisa flying up on her broom to join her.

"So, when did you get here," Marisa inquired.

"Did you really think I would stand by when something like this happened," Tenshi replied.

"So you're bored again," Marisa chuckled.

"That's not true, I never stopped being bored," Tenshi told her.

Mima however was readying her next attack. She had held her hand above her head and thrust it at them unleashing her crackling dark spark upon them. The celestial and witch flew in opposite directions to get out of the massive laser's range. As they moved away from the attack, Marisa shot a green burst of energy that shot towards Mima. At about the same time Tenshi summoned a keystone before her which fired off several then red lasers at the vengeful spirit. These managed to hit her causing Mima to loose a little altitude.

She glared back at them spreading her arms in the air. She summoned her magic circles in what seemed like random places. They fired off lasers slicing across the room, making Tenshi and Marisa dodge carefully. When these faded a new set of circles were spawned in different locations firing yet more lasers, a lot of which coming to close for comfort. Also while this was happening Mima herself was firing Lasers right at them. Marisa fired lasers back and Tenshi threw keystones as they weaved through her field of lasers.

Suddenly Tenshi found herself trapped between some lasers, and Mima took this opportunity to fire upon her. Even though the lasers around her faded away she couldn't move in time to avoid the one Mima herself fired. She was thrown back by the laser bouncing off a couple other lasers before regaining control of her flight. She was rather singed but still okay. Then Mima waved her hand causing the lasers to be spawned in a large circle around Marisa and Tenshi. Just before these faded she made another circle within the first, and then one more after that herding the two of them together into one spot.

Then right after creating the last ring she began preparing her variant of master spark. Before she was able to unleash her magic, something shot past her like a blur causing her to slump over clutching her chest. Youmu had stopped a couple feet away from Mima and turned towards her pointing her sword at the vengeful spirit.

"The Yama did say not to cut down so many ghosts, but for you I'll make an exception," Youmu commented.

Sakuya was by Cirno making sure she was okay. Mima straightened up revealing the cut across her chest. Youmu got ready to attack again. Marisa and Tenshi were now besides the swordswomen while Sakuya had decided to protect the unconscious Cirno. Mima now had a large pair of wings. She began cackling as she thrust both hands into the air.

Then four spheres of different colors began to spin about the spirit spawning small white danmaku. These flew towards the three before her and she began to add lasers to this. Youmu was slashing the air sending danmaku towards her foe. Tenshi was sending Keystones her way and Marisa was firing lasers of her own. Mima then flicked her hand casually creating a magic circle behind Marisa. Youmu noticed this and shoved Marisa out of the way of the attack.

Mima had also shot a laser herself expecting to hit Marisa with both of them. Since Youmu pushed her out of the way she was hit on both sides, crying out as they mercilessly burned her. Marisa and Tenshi retaliated hitting Mima with a spray of stars and several thin lasers respectively. Youmu is quite singed and looks as though she will fall at any moment.

"Go ahead and take a rest, me and Tenshi will handle Mima," Marisa told her.

The swords woman nodded and floated down to the floor near Sakuya. Mima hadn't let up her assault, Marisa and Tenshi continuing to dodge the barrage of Danmaku. They also returned fire hitting the evasive spirit now and again. Soon all of the spheres revolving around Mima had been destroyed. Mima was unconcerned by this and waved her hand in Marisa's direction trapping her in a laser cage. Tenshi showed concern, but she was even more surprised when Mima fired her laser at her.

The celestial winced shaking it off. Mima had then began to sweep Marisa's cage. However she was firing a laser from each hand one starting from the top, and the other the bottom. The lasers drew closer to the witch when suddenly they cut out. A large number of knives had appeared around Mima stabbing her all over. She wobbled a little in the air before finally crashing to the ground.

"We should stay here for a bit while they recover," Sakuya commented pointing at Cirno and Youmu.

"Sure, I could use some rest myself," Marisa admitted.

The witch then floated down to her mentor and began to pull Sakuya's knives out of her.

"Does she know her," Sakuya inquired.

"This is the first time I've seen her," Tenshi replied.

"Maybe she's her sensei," Youmu commented.

They considered this while watching Marisa tend to Mima.

* * *

Yukari smirked at the two shrine maidens before her. She pointed her parasol at them firing some thin lasers at them. Sanae leapt to the side and Reimu jumped into the air. Suddenly Yukari was behind her, summoning a kunai to her hand. Before she could turn or move away the boundary youkai thrust the blade at her. Fortunately the blade only caught her side as she tried to move away.

Sanae swung her gohei at Yukari who was already sinking into another of her gaps. She reappeared behind Reimu grabbing her arm and turning her to face her. In the same motion she pointed her parasol right at her face. Reimu responded by moving the tip of the parasol away from her with a swift motion of her free arm. The lasers meant for her face scorching the ceiling instead. Reimu hit her with her gohei causing her to stager back a bit.

Reimu then began to pull out needles, as she threw them Yukari gestured making another gap. This one dropped Marin in front of her who took the attack with a yelp. Reimu growled angrily at the Youkai who smirked back smugly. She picked Marin up and threw her unceremoniously towards Reimu. However before Reimu could catch her she gapped Marin right above Reimu. She landed right on top of her knocking her to the ground.

Then Yukari formed another one dropping debris from the train crashing through the wall on both of them. Sanae stepped in floating above them, firing several charms, blowing away the debris. The other two mikos slowly got up groaning a tad. Sanae threw more charms, this time at Yukari. She slid to the side grinning, until Sanae unleashed a ring of faith Pillars at her throwing Yukari against the wall. Instead of getting up she formed a gap beneath her reappearing above the ground, landing lightly on her feet.

The youkai then fired more lasers at Sanae. At the same time she pushed her from behind with the aid of a gap, causing her to stagger forward. She regained her balance only to be struck by the attack making her wince. Reimu then charged at her aiming a kick for her. The youkai gapped away, reappearing behind the shrine maiden. Yukari pulled out her fan unleashing a barrage of kunai at her.

Reimu twirled to her right, now facing her, and unleashed a couple of Yin yang orbs at her. She was hit by them making her scowl. Reimu didn't stop there though. Soon there were colorful spheres of light rotating around her. Yukari chuckled as she gapped Marin in front of her again, catching and holding her by her collar. Reimu hesitated for a second, but continued with the attack when Marin winked at her.

As the colorful light drew near, Marin removed her neckerchief and slipped out of her top, the Boundary Youkai taking the full attack. Marin immediately snatched her top back from the unconscious Youkai and pulled it back on retying her neckerchief.

"That's not proper behavior for a shrine maiden," Reimu told her apprentice.

"Well it worked, didn't it," She replied.

"At least she was wearing a sarashi," Sanae remarked as she walked over to them.

Suika was now getting up downing a little sake from her gourd as she approached them.

"Did I miss something," She inquired looking to where Yukari was.

"With her taken care of the passages won't loop anymore right," Marin inquired.

"Yeah, I'd assume so," Reimu replied.

"Then what are we waiting for, let's go teach whoever is doing this a lesson they won't soon forget," Marin exclaimed pumping her fist.

"You have been through a lot, don't you want to rest a bit," Sanae inquired.

"No way, I wouldn't be able to sit still knowing we could be doing something," Marin replied.

She happily started off down one of the corridors that led away from the room.

"She's just like you," Suika remarked smiling at Reimu.

"You're mistaken," Reimu insisted following after her apprentice.

Sanae chuckled then her and Suika followed after them as well.

* * *

Mima was now waking up, the first thing she saw was Marisa's smiling face.

"Marisa? Wait, what's going on here," the vengeful spirit inquired floating up from the floor.

"I'd like to know that myself," Tenshi commented.

"Where have you been Mima," Marisa asked her.

"Oh, here and there, I thought I'd see how my apprentice was doing without my guidance," the vengeful spirit replied.

"And from the looks of things, not very good," Mima continued judging by her appearance.

"Oh, you did this," Marisa said looking down at her singed and tattered clothes.

"You know better then to lie to me, at least tell a believable one," Mima scolded.

"She isn't lying this time," Sakuya told her.

"Yeah, there was something odd happening, right," Youmu added.

"She had scarlet eyes, I wonder if it has to do with temperament," Tenshi remarked.

"And you were being a big meanie," Cirno declared flying right in Mima's face, pointing at her.

"Well I don't remember doing anything of the sort," She replied pushing Cirno away.

"Well you did, and it really hurt too," Youmu stated.

"It's because she was being controlled," Marisa explained.

"In that case I'm going to have to pay them back in full," Mima commented, grinning evilly.

"You can't do that," Marisa gasped.

"And why not," Mima inquired.

"You wouldn't last a second," Marisa told her.

Mima gave Marisa a look.

"I think she's trying to say you'd fall under their control again," Sakuya commented.

"There's no need to worry about that, I'll be ready for their spell this time," Mima replied.

Marisa sighed before forcing a smile.

"Alright you win, but first you should eat something, to make sure you're in tip top shape," Marisa told her reaching into her pocket.

She pulled out a cookie and held it out to her mentor. Mima smiled accepting the cookie from Marisa. Sakuya smirked at this while Cirno grinned as well. Youmu however scratched her head. Mima bit into the cookie and not long afterward, collapsed to the ground.

"What just happened," Tenshi inquired a tad confused.

"Don't worry about it, lets just end this before she wakes up," Marisa told the others.

* * *

Reimu and the others were heading down a corridor when suddenly Reimu stopped. She held her hand out and the others stopped behind her looking confused.

"What is it," Marin asked curiously.

Reimu replied by holding a finger before her mouth and shushed her. She peeked around the corner where a few fairy maids were.

Sanae tried to look around the corner too, but Suika pulled her back.

"You're the head maid, you should know where the mistresses quarters are," one of them commented.

Reimu leaned in closer.

"I sorta forgot where they were," the other replied looking down.

"I'll just take care of it then," the other fairy sighed.

She shooed her away and began to wheel the cart down the hall. Reimu grinned turning back to the others.

"All we have to do is follow her, this is going to be so easy," she remarked.

Sanae and Suika nodded, Marin getting really excited. They carefully followed her down several passages, ducking out of sight whenever she looked back. After one such time she scratched her head.

"That's strange, I keep hearing things, but" She remarked aloud.

She shook her head and returned to pushing the cart. Soon she stopped in front of a door. She picked up a set of keys and unlocked the door.

"Now's our chance," Exclaimed Marin as she ran forward, pushing past the fairy Maid.

"Wait, no," the maid shrieked as the shrine maiden rushed past.

Reimu Sighed as she and the others followed.

"I'm gonna be punished for sure now," the maid sobbed.

The room was well decorated with a very ornate bed at the center. There was a large mirror and a rather large closet. There were red carpets and a chandelier. On the far side were a set of large windows.

"There's nobody here," Marin said a bit disappointed.

"You ran ahead before I could say anything, the room was locked, so she's obviously not here now," Reimu replied.

Suddenly a metal gate fell down over the door.

"Oh no, it's a trap," Sanae gasped.

Then Medicine, the doll youkai leapt up from behind the bed and extended her arms into the air. A purple mist began to spread outwards from her.

"This isn't good," Reimu murmured under her breath.

Reimu immediately took out some needles and threw them at medicine. Sanae fired several charms, while Suika launched a red sphere of energy. The doll youkai ducked behind the bed feathers and bits of fabric thrown into the air. Her poison continued to spread getting closer and closer to them. Suika stepped forward growing large and throwing a punch for the bed, crushing what was left. Then she flung it aside, however Medicine was not there.

Suika heard a noise and lifted her sights slightly to come face to face with the youkai doll. She was now hanging from the chandelier. As soon as Suika saw her, she shot a cloud of poison right in her face. This caused her to stagger back and fall to a sitting position almost landing on the others. She returned to normal size rubbing her eyes. Marin leapt up, preparing her spell.

She drew the circle and blasted forth the colorful blast. Medicine released the chandelier, which took the full force of the attack shattering and raining down around the room. The poison had caught up with them and they were beginning to feel sluggish. Sanae stepped forward next, gesturing for Reimu to join her. Sanae drew star shapes which spread about her before scattering. Reimu shot several rows of charms, trapping medicine between them.

Then she began to move the rows left while adding rings of charms the spread outward towards her. Medicine spread her arms wide and fired flower shaped danmaku all around her making a gap in Reimu's spell. She slipped through it just as Sanae's shots flew past. Then she thrust her arms forward and fired several flowers at Reimu. The shrine maiden attempted to dodge, but was too slow and was hit by nearly all of them. Then she fell to the ground coughing, her spell having vanished.

Sanae gasped, but Marin was already trying to aid her mentor. Sanae glared at the doll youkai and held her hand up. An image of Kanako appeared behind her and a strong gust of wind blew forth. The wind blew the doll back slamming her against the wall. Also the poison was blown away from them as well. However since the room was so small, it began to creep it's way back towards them.

Marin stood before Reimu, pointing her gohei at the approaching poison, as though that would deter it any. Medicine slowly got back up grinning evilly. She floated up a bit and began to unleash waves of shard danmaku. She added in the occasional bubble bullet here and there. Sanae grazed the first wave and then began to wave her gohei in various directions. Then she thrust it forward.

Several multicolored streaks of light crisscrossed across the room. Then she held her gohei above her head and a white glow appeared above the youkai dolls head. Medicine panicked flying right into one of the streaks of light getting shocked by it. She flew backwards right under the light Sanae had made appear above her. Sanae then thrust her gohei forward the light flying towards Medicine and several burst of light shot down at her from the sphere of light above her. The youkai now lay on the ground unconscious, however the poison continues to saturate the air.

Soon, Sanae is coughing, falling to her knees on the floor. Suika is already unconscious and Reimu is not doing much better. Marin continues in vain, attempting to fan the poison away with her gohei. She looks around the room. She prepares her spell and fires it. Her attack is followed shortly after by the sound of shattering glass.

"I hope this works," She managed before collapsing to the ground, coughing uncontrollably.

* * *

Marisa and the others, after exploring much of the castle soon came to a set of double doors. Marisa walked towards them and pushed them open. Beyond the doors is a spacious room, decorated with scarlet carpets, golden furnishings, and a large throne. Sitting in said throne was a woman, who smiled evilly at them. She had short black hair and was wearing a dark red kimono. Then Marisa noticed Eclair crouched next to her throne.

"So, it was you all this time," Marisa declared.

"You're the one who did that to my mistress," Sakuya growled eyeing her angrily.

"That's the strange lady I saw earlier," Cirno added excitedly.

"She knew who it was this whole time," Tenshi inquired thoughtfully.

"Well it doesn't matter who you are, I'm gonna slash you," Youmu declared stepping forward.

The lady in the throne only grinned, thrusting her right palm forward. On her hand was a strange glove. Imbedded in the palm of the glove was a round stone. It was blue and vaguely translucent with a streak of red inside. The stone shone a scarlet light on them, making them shield their eyes. Marisa stepped forward confidently.

"That won't work, we aren't youkai," Marisa informed her grinning.

She only smiled back making Marisa angry. Suddenly someone cried out. Marisa turned to see Youmu had dropped her sword and was on her knees clutching her head. Her eyes were clenched shut and she looked to be in pain.

"Interesting, it seems she is able to fight it somehow," the woman in the throne noted.

"You have to fight it," Marisa pleaded.

"Don't give in now," Cirno exclaimed.

"You can cut through this like anything else," Tenshi encouraged.

"Show some skill half corpse," Sakuya added.

Suddenly she relaxed breathing heavily, she slowly stood and smiled back at the others. Her friends however had concerned looks on their faces. Youmu turned and saw her ghost half had morphed into a copy of her. Though with one difference, it had scarlet eyes. Her ghost half slashed at her and she leapt away, her sword still on the ground. She pulled her smaller sword out to protect herself with.

The phantom Youmu rushed towards Cirno, but was intercepted by a keystone to her face followed by several red lasers. Youmu cried out as though she had been hit by the attack. Tenshi looked towards her for a second, but had to look away as her ghost half charged in close. The two of them locked swords allowing Tenshi to look right into the murderous glare of the phantom Youmu. The phantom Youmu began to reach for her other sword, so Tenshi kicked her away and leapt back. However before Youmu's ghost half could close the gap again Youmu stepped between them, having reclaimed her other sword.

"What are you doing," Tenshi demanded.

"Go, you need to deal with the culprit," Youmu replied.

Tenshi shook her head vigorously .

"This is a fight you simply cannot win, I can't let you," Tenshi told her.

"The problem is me, so I shall be the one to deal with it," Youmu replied.

Her phantom half charged and they clashed swords. Youmu's sword slipped past her ghost half's defenses, stabbing her in the shoulder. Youmu grunted in pain as she pulled the sword away. Marisa and Sakuya approached Tenshi.

"She knows what she's doing, if you want to help, then take her down," She said pointing at the woman in the throne.

She was now standing, energy crackling around her.

"Who are you," Sakuya demanded.

"That doesn't matter, because soon you will all be dead," She replied.

Tenshi leapt forward slashing wildly at her. Each swing however was unable to penetrate the energy that surrounded her. She thrust her hand forward, the energy around her spiking forward towards her. The celestial tried to move out of the way, the burst of crackling energy cutting deep into her side. Tenshi leapt back away from her holding her now bleeding side, grimacing.

"You cannot hope to defeat me, I have all the power of every youkai I control at my disposal," She cackled evilly.

"Oh yeah, how about this," Cirno declared.

The ice fairy thrust her hand forward unleashing a barrage of icicles at her. The ice projectiles shattered barely denting her field of energy. Then several knives appeared all around her closing in fast. These two hit the crackling energy and were knocked away. She held her hands out to her sides and a sphere of light formed to her left and right. They glowed brightly, then a laser lanced out from both of them. Both of them were aimed at Marisa who leapt back to avoid them. Then the witch leapt on her broom and lifted from the ground as two more shot towards her. Marisa weaved through the air evading the lasers.

"Her shield is tough, but not perfect, if we all hit the same spot at the same time," Marisa began.

"We'll be able to break through," Tenshi finished excitedly.

"Exactly, get ready everyone," Marisa confirmed continuing to dodge their foes assault.

The others prepared, waiting for Marisa's signal.

"Now," She declared and they all unleashed their attacks.

Cirno unleashed a barrage of icicles. Marisa launched a laser from her hands. Sakuya threw several knives. Tenshi launched a keystone, followed by several red lasers fired from another keystone. The attacks hit the energy shield in quick succession. The shield wore down enough that some of the projectiles made it through. One of them coming rather close to the culprit. One of Sakuya's knives had cut her cheek. The energy reformed around her almost immediately however.

"I told you it was futile, now I shall purge you from existence," she shouted.

Some of the sparkling energy began to float upward to the top of the round barrier around her. Spheres of energy swelled from the top before launching at Marisa and the others. Marisa swerved to avoid one of them as they arced away from the culprit. As soon as they hit the ground they burst in an explosion. Soon they lasers were being trained on Marisa again. They were all dodging carefully now trying to stay out of range of the constant explosions.

"Now what, how can we coordinate our attacks with this going on," Tenshi wondered aloud.

She leapt back quickly to avoid one of the exploding projectiles.

"It's easy, all you have to do is hit it a lot," Cirno commented.

She flew towards her with a big grin on her face. She held out a hand forming an ice sword. Then she gripped it with both hands spinning vertically, striking the barrier repeatedly. Then after several strikes she stabbed forward with the blade slicing open a hole in her defense. The ice fairy dropped the blade as she slipped inside. She grinned at her ready to spawn more ice. Before she did however streaks of electricity arced from the barrier striking the ice fairy. She cried out as the electricity coursed through her body. When it ceased, she slumped to the ground breathing heavily.

"Fairies are nothing but a nuisance." she commented before kicking her away.

She was thrown right through the barrier, causing her to cry out once more. Sakuya flew forward next, taking a knife in each hand. She swung wildly with them tearing away at the barrier. The barrier however spiked outward at her too, making her leap away just before breaking through. Unfortunately she landed within range of one of the exploding projectiles, throwing her against the wall. Tenshi evaded some exploding projectiles, then she thrust her hands forward unleashing a massive burst of scarlet energy.

As the energy shot towards her the bombardment stopped. After the attack ended Tenshi gasped. All the scarlet energy she had unleashed was inside a pocket in the barrier. Just as quickly as she had fired it off, it flew back at her. The burst of scarlet energy enveloped the celestial throwing her back across the room.

"But why do any of this, what do you want," Marisa demanded.

"Reimu is to blame, and so are you," She replied sinisterly.

"What did I ever do, If Reimu did something wrong, then just punish her," Marisa reasoned.

"You're as guilty as she is, and now you will pay," She roared.

"Well as nice as that is, none of your attacks are all that impressive, so if I don't attack you, there isn't much you can do," Marisa commented.

"Is that what you think," the culprit asked grinning.

The barrier spiked outward at three points on top. Electricity began to arc between the three points and soon a sphere of light began to form.

"Uh, I could be mistaken,," Marisa remarked.

The energy in the sphere increased until she unleashed it forward as a massive laser, comparable to Marisa's sparks. Marisa swung down low and glided to the right evading the massive burst of energy. However at that moment a regular laser lanced out and knocked her from her broom. The witch landed painfully, her broom a ways away. The next shot was already charging. Marisa leapt to her feet and rushed to her broom, which was destroyed by an exploding projectile before she reached it. She looked up, seeing the laser was almost ready to fire.

"This is gonna hurt," Marisa remarked uneasily.


	8. finale

Marisa leapt to her feet and rushed to her broom, which was destroyed by an exploding projectile before she reached it. She looked up, seeing the laser was almost ready to fire.

"This is gonna hurt," Marisa remarked uneasily.

Several multicolored spheres of energy impacted on the energy shield destroying the three spikes, disrupting her attack. The energy dissipated into the air.

"Oh, we were just talking about you," Marisa commented after turning to see Reimu besides her with her gohei ready.

"Who is this, and what's been going on around here," Reimu inquired.

"She claims to have a beef with you, so what did you do," Marisa inquired with a grin.

"I don't know what she's talking about," Reimu replied.

"It figures you would forget, so why don't I refresh your memory," the culprit began.

"It happened last year, Your actions cost me something precious, don't you remember," She continued.

"I didn't do anything to you," Reimu retorted.

"yes, but that is the problem, you did nothing. When my son was abducted by youkai I came to you, but you told me nothing could be done. You didn't even try," She replied angrily.

Reimu's eyes widened and she took a step back.

"There really wasn't anything I could do, by the time we tracked them down, your child would have already been dead, Youkai eat humans," Reimu told her.

"I know that, but this is still your fault. You call yourself a youkai exterminator and yet you never kill any youkai. If you had been doing your job properly it never would have happened," She replied seething with rage.

"Who are you to criticize how I do my job. I keep the peace in Gensokyo, not slaughter Youkai," Reimu replied beginning to get mad.

"Your duty as a shrine maiden is to serve and protect humans, Don't start defending those monsters," She shot back.

"The only monster around here is you, How many innocent humans did you kill, all in the name of revenge," Reimu replied.

"uh, Reimu, where are the others," Marisa wondered looking around.

"I didn't feel like waiting around for them, so I went on ahead alone," Reimu replied.

Reimu pulled out some charms and threw them at the culprit. The barrier stopped them, but they still detonated, Digging into the shield temporarily. Reimu proceeded to then pull out some needles and flung them at the field of energy around the culprit. These hardly dented her shield. The culprit spread her arms and round bits of crackling energy floated off from the Barrier rotating around her. Lasers flared to life between her barrier and the bits of energy that now orbited her. Reimu floated up to evade as one of the lasers flared near her.

"The barrier is near impenetrable, though consecutive hits seems to wear it down," Marisa informed her.

"You don't say," Reimu replied smiling.

She thrust her hand forward, and suddenly a massive barrage of needles was unleashed. As the many needles pounded into her barrier, it began to recede in the back to make up for shielding being eroded in the front. Reimu saw this and warped behind her, following it up with a flying kick. The barrier however had reformed, causing her to collide with it. She was thrown back with a yelp hitting the wall, before collapsing to the floor. Her wound began to seep blood again, and it took all her strength to stand up again.

She grit her teeth as she glared at the culprit. Marisa began firing lasers and bursts of magic at her to attract her attention. She simply ignored her as she prepared to finish off the miko. All of the orbiting bits of her shield went behind Reimu. Marisa tried to rush towards her, but the culprit fired off a laser at her, stopping her in her tracks so as not to be hit. The bits of her shield began to fire their lasers, the culprit grinning evilly.

At that moment someone swooped down, right into the way of the attack, arms stretched out. A screech off pain sounded as the lasers burned the small figure who had flown in the way. Marin lay gasping for breathe in Reimu's arms. Sanae gasped, covering her mouth with her hand While Suika looked rather sad.

"Why did you do that," Reimu inquired, trying her hardest not to cry.

"I finally did something right, eh Miss Hakurei," Marin managed.

"You idiot, that was a mistake," Reimu told her.

"But to stand by and do nothing, that's something I just can't do," Marin told her before weakly smiling.

"So she does have a heart, tell me shine maiden, how does it feel knowing you can't save her," The culprit taunted.

Reimu glared at her before turning her attention back to Marin.

"Just hang in there, you'll be fine," Reimu assured her apprentice.

"It's really a pity, I could probably save her, but since this is tormenting you so I don't feel like it, after all I can make anything happen now," The culprit chuckled.

Reimu clenched her fist a couple tears escaping her eyes as Marin went limp in her arms. She placed her down gently and turned towards the culprit. Reimu held her hand above her head as multicolored energy surrounded her. She spawned several spheres of light and hurled them at her opponent. Reimu followed this with several yin yang orbs accompanied by a handful of charms and needles. When these failed to penetrate her shield she leapt foreword striking it with her gohei furiously in a blind rage.

Marisa pulled her back just before the shield spiked out at her. Even though she had been pulled away she continued to swing her gohei screaming at the culprit.

"Whoa calm down, I finally figured it out," Marisa informed her.

She stopped swinging her gohei and screaming and turned towards the witch.

"That power isn't hers, and it isn't from the sapphire eye either," Marisa began.

Marisa lifted Reimu into her arms and leapt back narrowly evading a laser shot by the culprit.

"So far all of the affected youkai attacked us on sight, and that thing she said, 'I can make anything happen'," Marisa continued.

"What are you getting at," Reimu inquired.

"She's using Eclair's power, without her she's nothing, that's why she's been sitting in the corner this whole fight," Marisa explained.

"Are you going to hold me all day," Reimu remarked.

"Huh, oh, sorry about that," Marisa said putting the miko down.

"Sanae, let's deal with Eclair, Suika, go keep her busy," Marisa said pointing at the culprit.

Suika eagerly leapt forward firing red spheres at her barrier, which burst upon impact. While this was happening Marisa and Sanae chased after Eclair, who was now flying around the room trying to evade them. Sanae fired several charms while Marisa fired stars toward the young demon. Marisa grinned and left Sanae to chase Eclair alone for a bit. Suddenly several stars appeared around her and she shrieked almost flying into one. She managed to dodge her way out however.

"How did you do that," Sanae inquired.

Marisa only grinned holding up Sakuya's pocket watch. Sanae gave her a look.

"I'm only borrowing it," Marisa replied smiling.

Sanae only sighed as she activated it again surrounding the youkai in stars and lasers. She attempted to dodge these as well but got hit by the laser, knocking her back into a couple of stars.

Meanwhile, Suika was throwing everything she had at the culprit. The shield however was standing strong. However for a moment when Eclair was hit the barrier flickered.

"Where did all those attacks go," The oni taunted her.

However she just glared back angrily. Suika punched the barrier shattering it. The oni closed in on her lifting her by her collar. She held her right hand in front of Suika's face. The oni reached out and tore the stone from her glove.

"What's this," She wondered inspecting it.

At that moment Eclair returned to normal looking around confused. The first thing she saw was Marisa and Sanae charging towards her.

"Looks like everyone wants to play with me now," She commented.

"Eclair," Suika exclaimed floating up next to her, having released the culprit.

"Oh, hi Suika, am I at a party," Eclair inquired looking at the unconscious people on the ground.

"No not quite, you can't have a party without sake," She said holding up her gourd.

"Hey Suika, can I have a look at that," Marisa said getting close.

"You've already seen my gourd," Suika replied.

"That's not what I meant," the witch replied smiling.

"Oh, you mean this thing," Suika said holding out the sapphire eye.

"yeah, that," Marisa said taking the round stone and looking at it closely.

"Hey Eclair, I need your help for a second," Marisa told her.

"What do you want," She wondered.

"You can make anything happen right," Marisa continued.

"Well of course, why do you ask," Eclair wondered.

"Then you can destroy this," Marisa said tossing the sapphire eye to her.

She turned it over in her hands. She smiled as she formed a field of energy around it. Then she squeezed hard with both hands and the stone shattered, reduced to dust.

"That was great, thanks a lot," Marisa told her grinning.

"uh Marisa, where did the culprit go," Sanae inquired.

"Don't worry about her, she's harmless now," Marisa replied.

An ominous shadow loomed over Marisa. She turned to come face to face with Mima. She knocked her over the head with her fist.

"That was sneaky and underhanded, nice job, just don't try that on me again," the vengeful spirit told her.

"I'll keep that in mind," Marisa said chuckling.

Mima then noticed Reimu standing by the wall, her head hung low. Mima began to head towards her, however Marisa got in her way.

"Now may not be the best time, she just lost her apprentice," Marisa told her Mentor.

"She has an apprentice," Mima commented aloud scratching her head.

Before Marisa could reply Mima brushed past her and flew down to the shrine maiden. She looked the shrine maiden up and down when and frowned.

"What happened to you, I thought you were stronger then this, how do you expect to be my rival if you get soft," Mima taunted.

"Hi Mima," Reimu said without any emotion.

"It's no fun if you don't get mad at me, snap out off it already, so what you're apprentice died, just get another one" Mima sighed.

Reimu glared at her angrily.

"I'm right here you know," Marin called limping over to them.

"Marin," Reimu exclaimed excitedly going and hugging her.

"But how, didn't you," Reimu began.

"Die, yeah I kinda did," she replied.

Reimu looked at her confused.

"I sort of tricked the shikigami, I hope she doesn't get in trouble," Marin explained.

"Yeah, the yama won't be happy, but I don't care," Reimu commented.

"Okay who's the thief," Sakuya shouted angrily.

Marisa walked over to her grinning nervously.

"With all the commotion I forgot to slip it back," Marisa said holding it out to her.

She snatched it back before pocketing it. After reclaiming her watch she left without another word. Cirno was just getting up, rubbing her head.

"Hey, where did she go," she exclaimed looking around.

Then she saw Reimu and flew over to her.

"Guess who solved the incident this time," The ice fairy boasted.

"Not you," Reimu said with a grin.

"Hey, my efforts were key to this victory, without me you would have failed," She replied.

"Marisa is the one that deserves credit for this one," Reimu commented.

"Ha, then you admit it, since I was the team captain I get credit for anything my subordinates do, I have to go tell the others," She shot back before leaving in a hurry.

Tenshi was tending to Youmu who had sustained several injuries fighting off her possessed ghost half.

"Oh no, I didn't get any treats for mistress Yuyuko," Youmu commented.

"That's an odd thing to worry about, especially considering the condition your in," Tenshi replied.

"Well she's sure to be mad if I come back empty handed," Youmu sighed.

Tenshi smiled as she pulled the peach from her hat and handed it to the half ghost gardener.

"Then give her this," She told her.

"Alright," Youmu said accepting the fruit.

"Everybody out, we need to rebuild the village, and that means this castle has to come down," Suika declared.

* * *

Cirno flew to the forest looking for her friends. She soon spotted them and flew down to greet them.

"Hey, guess what, I solved an incident," Cirno exclaimed excitedly.

"You beat the miko and the witch to it," wriggle inquired.

"Even better then that, the witch was my subordinate," Cirno replied.

"whoa, that's cool," Mystia remarked.

"So who was the culprit," Rumia wondered aloud.

"It was some human, she didn't stand a chance against me," Cirno replied.

"Now lets go celebrate, we could play some games and have our very own party," Cirno continued.

The others nodded in agreement as they each went to get something to bring to the party.

* * *

Tenshi, Youmu, Reimu, Marin, Marisa and Sanae reached the entrance. Tenshi Made a bridge of keystones for them since Youmu had destroyed the drawbridge earlier. Marisa walked across said bridge followed by Reimu helping Marin along. The others simply flew. Youmu waved goodbye to them heading back to the netherworld. When Marisa and Reimu reached the other side of the moat, a crowd of people approached them. It was many of the humans from the village, the culprit pushing her way to the front.

"These people claim to protect you, but look what they did to your village, all those attacks were their doing," She declared pointing at Marisa and Reimu.

A murmur sounded from the crowd. She grinned evilly at the shrine maiden.

"I didn't think you'd be such a sore loser," Reimu sighed.

"They're just trying to trick you, I'm an ordinary human, and besides if I had been fighting, why aren't I injured," She retorted.

Marisa was laughing now. This was beginning to get on her nerves.

"What's so funny," She demanded.

"If this is a ploy to get the sapphire eye back don't bother, it's gone," Marisa chuckled.

"What, you lie," She shot back angrily.

"I saw it happen myself, the magical item you used to mastermind these attacks, turned to dust in an instant," Marisa continued.

"No, I worked too hard for it to end like this," She exclaimed.

The villagers were glaring angrily at her now. She gasped as she looked at all those that now cast angry stares at her. Without another word she fled, some of the villagers pursuing her. Marisa chuckled at the sight, when she noticed someone in the crowd.

"Rinnosuke, I need a favor of you," Marisa called out.

He slowly made his way to the front of the crowd, where Marisa stood grinning.

"So, what is it you need," He inquired.

She reached into her pocket and held out a handful of damp pieces of wood.

"You broke it again," he sighed collecting the pieces into his hands.

"So you'll fix it," Marisa inquired.

"Yeah, same charge as always," He said pocketing the fragments and holding his hand out once more.

"I'll pay you when I get back, I have things I need to do now," She told him with a grin.

"Well I trust you will, I can always hold the hakero until I'm paid," he replied adjusting his glasses.

Marisa smiled now turning to Reimu.

"What is it," She inquired.

"I just need a broom," Marisa replied casually.

"Fine, you can use it, but I want it back as soon as possible," Reimu replied.

"Alright," Marisa said pumping her fist as she began to walk away.

"First stop, the Hakurei shrine, and then off to Makai" Marisa continued as she went.

"I wonder what she's up to," Marin wondered aloud.

"It's probably nothing to worry about," Reimu told her with a chuckle.

Just then a gigantic Suika burst from the castle throwing debris in the air. An energetic Eclair flew about around her head. Suika held out her hand drawing the stray debris to it before stomping the rest to the ground. Once she was done and the area was thoroughly flattened down she returned to normal size. Eclair quickly floated down after her.

"What are we going to do now," Eclair inquired excitedly.

"Next we rebuild the village, I'll get the timber, you go tell the villagers, they'll want to help," Suika instructed her.

"Sure, you can count on me," She replied twirling in the air.

Suika smiled and rushed away towards the forest. Eclair giggled as she flew over to the villagers.

"Come on everyone, we're gonna rebuild the village," she declared.

The villagers followed Eclair to the newly flattened ground. A little latter Suika returned with a large stack of lumber held above her head. The villagers eagerly set to work on rebuilding their homes.

"Lets go home Marin," Reimu told her apprentice.

Marin simply nodded and they began to walk back to the shrine.

* * *

A week latter in the forest of magic, Marin walked towards the residence of Marisa. She knocked on the door, and shortly afterwards it opened.

"Oh, hello there, what brings you here," Marisa inquired.

"I'm just here to invite you to the party being held at the shrine," Marin told her.

"Really, well you can count on me showing up," Marisa replied.

"Can I count on you to tell Alice about the party," Marin asked.

"No problem, I'll tell her," Marisa replied grinning.

"Thanks, see you there," Marin said happily as she lifted away.

Latter that night she was back at the shrine preparing snacks for the guests she was expecting.

"Uh Marin, what are you doing," Reimu inquired when she happened to walk into the room.

"I invited some people over," Marin told her with a grin.

"How many people," Reimu inquired.

At that moment the door to the shrine slid open and two people came inside.

"I hope we aren't early," Yuyuko commented as she came closer.

Youmu was right besides her.

"Thanks for inviting us Marin," the ghost gardener said smiling.

"Why your right on time," Marin told Yuyuko.

She noticed the food, and helped herself to a rice ball. Youmu took a dumpling and happily began eating it. Someone tapped Marin on the shoulder making her jump. It was Yukari leaning out of one of her gaps.

"I'm here, I even brought some sake," Yukari told her setting the bottle down.

To her left and right stop Ran and Chen.

"I hope you aren't too mad about before, I heard I tried to kill you," Yukari said casually.

"Don't worry about it, you didn't mean it," Marin replied.

The boundary youkai reached through one of her gaps grabbing one of the rice balls. Then she popped away reappearing outside. Ran and Chen helped themselves to the food as well. Marisa walked in next accompanied by Murasa.

"I hope she made kabobs," Marisa said her mouth watering a tad.

"Marisa was just telling me about what happened while we were in Makai, did you really," Murasa began.

"Yeah, she got herself killed and came back somehow," Reimu replied.

"So it is true, sorry Marisa, I thought you were embellishing on what had happened," Murasa commented.

Marisa was happily eating a kabob and didn't seem to notice. Just then Eclair rushed in giggling holding a black book. Soon afterwards Alice entered glaring angrily at her.

"Hey, give that back," She shouted.

Eclair stuck her tongue out at Alice and began laughing again as she continued to chase her. Utsuho stepped in next and walked right over to the food. She picked a piece of sushi which she ate happily.

"Oh Utsuho, how did that present go," Marisa inquired.

"She never expected me to get her a spoon, and actually neither did I," the hell raven replied.

Marisa chuckled after hearing this heading outside. Remilia scarlet entered next and walked over to Marin.

"You're the girl that cheated death right," she inquired.

"Yeah," Marin replied.

"Well I'm impressed, and that's not easy to do, so you should be honored," The vampire replied.

"Uh, thanks I guess," Marin replied.

Remilia went back outside not bothering to even glance at the food Marin had made.

"Is everybody gonna remember me as the girl who cheated death," Marin wondered aloud.

"Of course not, you're the shrine maiden who cheated death," Reimu replied.

"that's not helping miss Hakurei," she replied before laughing about it.

Tenshi entered next, quickly grabbing some food before heading back out. Reimu then walked over the door and looked outside. There were several others outside, talking and drinking. Alice had tackled Eclair to the ground and taken back her book by force. Eclair had just gotten back up laughing looking for something else to do. Patchouli was there talking with Byakuren. Cirno was bragging to Erin, who looked like she didn't really care.

Suika had set up a stand and was serving sake to the guests. Komachi was standing near the stand talking to Suika about something. Even Hina was there happily spinning in place.

"You invited everyone," Reimu asked her a bit surprised.

"Why not, the more the merrier, right," Marin replied.

"Well we're bound to get some donations with this many here, good work," Reimu said smiling.

* * *

The End

**And that concludes the sapphire eye. This is the first Touhou story I ever wrote, but I do plan on writing more. I have been thinking of making the next one a crossover with doctor who. I would also like to thank everyone who has read this story, and anonymous pyramided for providing me with constructive criticism and feedback. About what happened to Marin, I was rather torn between her living and dieing, so I just went with both. I hope it isn't too absurd. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.  
**


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